Anders Fogh Rasmussen: After the London conference, NATO was accused of trying to achieve peace by bribing the Taliban. In this video, the NATO Secretary General says that this is not the case, and that reconciliation and re-integration efforts will provide an alternative path to the Afghan people.
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Memo 11: The war in Afghanistan is as much about winning militarily and politically as it is about winning the media battle against the Taliban. What it takes is an effective communication strategy that reaches Afghans in their daily life and respects conditions on the ground.
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Officials have confirmed the capture of the Taliban’s deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. ++ “It may indicate a shift in co-operation between American and Pakistani intelligence services, reflecting a change in policy by the government in Islamabad.” ++ His capture coincides with a major offensive against insurgents in the Helmand province. ++ The success of the leader’s detention can’t be
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For almost three hundred years independent states have
been the primary vehicles, and objectives, of political action. Today, however,
only very few stirve for political goals within the framework of a particular
state. Quite the opposite: many can achieve their goals more easily when they
have no connection to a state apparatus. State systems are merely a hindrance
to active political
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Iraqi insurgents are increasingly powerful because they constantly learn and adapt in the same way that the open-source movement revolutionized software development. Technological might has proved ineffectual in the face of this “open-source warfare,” writes Robert N. Charette in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ online magazine Spectrum.
Since more of these asymmetrical
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