Toughing It Out In Afghanistan

Author : Michael E. O'Hanlon,Hassina Sherjan
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2010-06-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780815704348

Get Book

Toughing It Out in Afghanistan by Michael E. O'Hanlon,Hassina Sherjan Pdf

"Michael O'Hanlon and Hassina Sherjan have written a superb analysis of the current strategy in Afghanistan. It is an insightful work by two authors with exceptional knowledge and experience. It is a must-read for those who want a clear understanding of the situation, the strategy, and the path ahead in this crucial conflict." —General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC (Retired) In this unique collaboration between an American scholar and an Afghan American entrepreneur, Toughing It Out in Afghanistan provides a succinct look at the current situation in Afghanistan with policy prescriptions for the future. Drawing partly on personal experiences, O'Hanlon and Sherjan outline the tactics being used to protect the Afghan population and defeat the insurgents. They discuss ongoing efforts to reform the Afghan police, to run a better prison system for detainees, to enlist the help of more of Afghanistan's tribes, and to attack corruption. They also discuss the Afghan resistance, including an explanation of how the Taliban mounted a comeback and what it will take to defeat them. The authors also seek to demolish common myths about Afghanistan, such as the notion that somehow its people hate foreigners. And they explain how to use metrics, such as those in the Brookings Afghanistan Index, to determine if the new strategy is succeeding in the course of 2010 and 2011. Included are policy suggestions to further increase the size and capabilities of the Afghan army and police, to facilitate Afghan businesses' involvement in economic recovery, to expand the role of other Muslim nations in the effort, and to create a strong international aid coordinator as a civilian counterpart to NATO's military leader.

Author : Tim Bird,Alex Marshall
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2011-06-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9780300154573

Get Book

Afghanistan by Tim Bird,Alex Marshall Pdf

Examines why the West has failed to achieve its objectives in Afghanistan, discussing the country's drug trade, political corruption, troubled relations with Pakistan, and harsh terrain, and the lessons about nation building that can be learned from the experience.

Author : John A. Gentry
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2011-11-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780313395833

Get Book

How Wars Are Won and Lost by John A. Gentry Pdf

This provocative book seeks to answer a most crucial—and embarrassing—question concerning the U.S. military: why the United States is so often stymied in military confrontations with seemingly weaker opponents, despite its "superpower" status. This fascinating book examines a question that continues to puzzle soldiers, statesmen, and scholars: why do major powers—including the ostensible superpower United States—repeatedly perform poorly against seemingly overmatched adversaries? And what can they, and the United States, do to better achieve their military objectives? How Wars are Won and Lost: Vulnerability and Military Power argues that beyond relying solely on overwhelming military might, the United States needs to focus more on exploiting weaknesses in their adversaries—such as national will, resource mobilization, and strategic miscues—just as opposing forces have done to gain advantage over our military efforts. The author tests the "vulnerability theory" by revisiting six conflicts from the Philippine War of 1899-1902 to the ongoing actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, showing again and again that victory often depends more on outthinking the enemy than outmuscling them.

Author : Nicholas Burns and Jonathon Price
Publisher : Aspen Institute
Page : 186 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2011-03-14
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

Get Book

American Interests in South Asia by Nicholas Burns and Jonathon Price Pdf

Aspen Policy Books is a series devoted to identifying and circulating critical new thinking on national security challenges. This book is a collection of papers commissioned for the 2010 Aspen Strategy Group workshop. This bipartisan, high-level examination of American interests in the region outlines geopolitical realities that challenge stability in the region and identifies policy strategies to confront them. The papers enclosed address such topics as the balance of power in South Asia, the US mission in Afghanistan, an evaluation of American foreign aid, relations between India and Pakistan, and an analysis of the future in this incredibly important region.

Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 74 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Afghanistan
ISBN : MINN:31951D03618315Q

Get Book

Expert Assessments on the Afghan National Security Forces by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Pdf

Author : Conor Keane
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2016-03-31
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781317003199

Get Book

US Nation-Building in Afghanistan by Conor Keane Pdf

Why has the US so dramatically failed in Afghanistan since 2001? Dominant explanations have ignored the bureaucratic divisions and personality conflicts inside the US state. This book rectifies this weakness in commentary on Afghanistan by exploring the significant role of these divisions in the US’s difficulties in the country that meant the battle was virtually lost before it even began. The main objective of the book is to deepen readers understanding of the impact of bureaucratic politics on nation-building in Afghanistan, focusing primarily on the Bush Administration. It rejects the ’rational actor’ model, according to which the US functions as a coherent, monolithic agent. Instead, internal divisions within the foreign policy bureaucracy are explored, to build up a picture of the internal tensions and contradictions that bedevilled US nation-building efforts. The book also contributes to the vexed issue of whether or not the US should engage in nation-building at all, and if so under what conditions.

Author : S. Akbarzadeh
Publisher : Springer
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2011-07-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780230119598

Get Book

America's Challenges in the Greater Middle East by S. Akbarzadeh Pdf

Barack Obama has faced many challenges in reversing U.S. policy on the Middle East. This book highlights points of resistance to Obama's efforts regarding U.S. foreign policy and what lessons may be learned from this experience for the remainder of his presidency and his potential second term in office.

Author : Lori A. Johnson,Kathleen Uradnik,Sara Beth Hower Ph.D.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 671 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2011-09-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780313343148

Get Book

Battleground: Government and Politics [2 volumes] by Lori A. Johnson,Kathleen Uradnik,Sara Beth Hower Ph.D. Pdf

Through a detailed exploration of the viewpoints involved, this balanced and incisive work promotes understanding of the most divisive issues in American government today. Government and politics is an area in which there are no "right" answers, but much room for debate. Battleground: Government and Politics allows students and general readers alike to consider key political debates from all sides and to arrive at their own considered convictions, based on a firm understanding of the issues and points of view involved. This two-volume work explores dozens of the most contentious issues in contemporary life, issues that impact how our government is run today and how it will be run in the future. Each topic is examined in a balanced way, providing not only an overview of the issues involved, but an objective assessment of the stance of all sides. Readers can use these entries as thorough and solid summaries of the most contentious controversies in contemporary society, or as starting points for more in-depth research into the debates.

Author : R. Nicholas Burns,Jonathon Price,Aspen Strategy Group (U.S.)
Publisher : Aspen Institute
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Afghanistan
ISBN : 9780898435405

Get Book

American Interests in South Asia by R. Nicholas Burns,Jonathon Price,Aspen Strategy Group (U.S.) Pdf

This EBOOK Lit Note from the experts at CliffsNotes on Yann Martel's acclaimed "Life of Pi" includes plot summaries and commentaries, and character analyses on this best-selling book. Features of this Lit Note from the experts at CliffsNotes include: Focused summaries of the plot and analysis of important themes, symbols, and character development Character analyses of major characters, focusing on what makes each character "tick" and how each character grows throughout the novel Brief synopsis of the entire book Short quiz

Author : Aaron B. O'Connell
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2017-04-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226265797

Get Book

Our Latest Longest War by Aaron B. O'Connell Pdf

American and Afghan veterans contribute to this anthology of critical perspectives—“a vital contribution toward understanding the Afghanistan War” (Library Journal). When America went to war with Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, it did so with the lofty goals of dismantling al Qaeda, removing the Taliban from power, remaking the country into a democracy. But as the mission came unmoored from reality, the United States wasted billions of dollars, and thousands of lives were lost. Our Latest Longest War is a chronicle of how, why, and in what ways the war in Afghanistan failed. Edited by prize-winning historian and Marine lieutenant colonel Aaron B. O’Connell, the essays collected here represent nine different perspectives on the war—all from veterans of the conflict, both American and Afghan. Together, they paint a picture of a war in which problems of culture, including an unbridgeable rural-urban divide, derailed nearly every field of endeavor. The authors also draw troubling parallels to the Vietnam War, arguing that ideological currents in American life explain why the US government has repeatedly used military force in pursuit of democratic nation-building. In Afghanistan, as in Vietnam, this created a dramatic mismatch of means and ends that neither money, technology, nor weapons could overcome.

Author : Del Spier,Barbara Spier
Publisher : Advantage Media Group
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781599324159

Get Book

An Impossible Situation by Del Spier,Barbara Spier Pdf

The true story of how lives were lost, taxpayer money squandered, and reputations destroyed as part of an ill-conceived effort to remake Afghanistan into something akin to our own image. What started as a project to reconstruct the highway between Kabul and Kandahar evolved into an ambitious effort to provide Afghanistan with new roads, bridges, schools, clinics, power plants, and irrigation projects. These assignments fell to a Texas-based security firm, US Protection & Investigation, LLC (USPI), which in the space of a few years rose to become the most pervasive and effective paramilitary force in Afghanistan. The initiatives required weapons, health and death benefits, ammunition, uniforms, and vehicles, which the underfunded Government of Afghanistan could not supply, but still mandated. Amendment 660 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1972 prohibited USAID from funding these items. Aware of these Vietnam-era legal restraints, Del Spier of USPI alerted U.S. officials to the implications and was assured repeatedly that a way would be found to solve the problem. This is the unbelievable true story of a normal American couple, Del and Barbara Spier, in unfriendly enemy territory, in the middle of a war. Unknown to Barbara, Del was forced to take matters into his own hands to accomplish U.S. objectives. He was caught in the crossfire of Afghanistan's endemic corruption, criminals, and ethnic rivalries and Washington's shifting military strategies and bureaucratic inertia. USPI security personnel worked across the country, where they encountered ambushes, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), warlords, drug kingpins, criminals and ordinary Afghans coping with the horrors of everyday life. These horrors struck a humanitarian nerve in the Spiers and without any government assistance they provided clothing, medicine, training, fuel, food and shelter to the unfortunate. As American troops are being withdrawn from Afghanistan, one overriding question will occupy the public for years: How could an endeavor that began with the toppling of the Taliban regime in Kabul a decade ago have evolved into the longest war in American history? The Spiers' path ultimately led them into a protracted legal battle. USAID turned on the very company that for years had protected its construction sites in Afghanistan and enlisted the FBI and the Justice Department in a three-year, multi-million dollar investigation vendetta against the Spiers and their company. Only dramatic courtroom decisions handed down in March and July 2010 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. brought the matter to a surprising conclusion. The Spiers' tragedy is a microcosm of America's misadventure in Afghanistan.

Author : Patrick W. Quirk
Publisher : Springer
Page : 278 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2017-01-25
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783319474199

Get Book

Great Powers, Weak States, and Insurgency by Patrick W. Quirk Pdf

This book offers an original and theoretically rich examination into the dynamics of alliances that great powers and weak states form to defeat threats, such as rebellion or insurgency, within the smaller state’s borders. The author examines contemporary examples of such “internal threat alliances,” including Russia’s collaboration with Syria’s Assad regime to defeat anti-government rebels and U.S. cooperation with Afghanistan’s ruling political elite to combat the Taliban. In each case, the weaker state’s leadership wanted to remain in power while the great power sought to safeguard its interests linked to the regime’s stability. The book adds to International Relations (IR) theory by presenting a distinct conceptual framework that explains why internal threat alliances form, why some are more cohesive than others, and why some are effective while others are not. It thus promises to be of interest to IR scholars and students working in the areas of security studies, alliance dynamics, political violence, and civil war, but also to policy-makers grappling with how to salvage interests, such as access to natural resources or regional stability, imperiled by violence in weak states.

Author : Dan Caldwell
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2011-02-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780804777490

Get Book

Vortex of Conflict by Dan Caldwell Pdf

More than two million Americans have now served in Afghanistan or Iraq; more than 5,000 Americans have been killed; and more than 35,000 have been grievously wounded. The war in Afghanistan has become America's longest war. Despite these facts, most Americans do not understand the background of, or reasons for, the United States' involvement in these two wars. Utilizing an impressive array of primary and secondary sources, author Dan Caldwell describes and makes sense of the relevant historical, political, cultural, and ideological, elements related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps most importantly, he demonstrates how they are interrelated in a number of important ways. Beginning with a description of the history of the two conflicts within the context of U.S. policies toward Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan—because American policy toward terrorism and Afghanistan cannot be understood without some consideration of Pakistan—he outlines and analyzes the major issues of the two wars. These include intelligence quality, war plans, postwar reconstruction, inter-agency policymaking, U.S. relations with allies, and the shift from a conventional to counterinsurgency strategy. He concludes by capturing the lessons learned from these two conflicts and points to their application in future conflict. Vortex of Conflict is the first, accessible, one-volume resource for anyone who wishes to understand why and how the U.S. became involved in these two wars—and in the affairs of Pakistan—concurrently. It will stand as the comprehensive reference work for general readers seeking a road map to the conflicts, for students looking for analysis and elucidation of the relevant data, and for veterans and their families seeking to better understand their own experience.

Author : Karl Yambert
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2016-05-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781440833991

Get Book

Security Issues in the Greater Middle East by Karl Yambert Pdf

This textbook anthology of selected readings on pressing Middle East security concerns serves as an invaluable single-volume assessment of critical security issues in nations such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. The issues and current events of the Greater Middle East continue to hold deep implications for American geopolitical interests in the region—as they have for many decades. An ideal resource for students in undergraduate courses on the Middle East and related regions as well as students in graduate programs of international studies or security studies, this textbook anthologizes recent, insightful analyses by top scholars on trends and events in the Middle East that bear crucially on regional and global security considerations, covering topics like Iran's nuclear ambitions; the rise, ebb, and resurgence of Al Qaeda; and the war in Syria. The essays address concerns that include the re-imposition of military rule in Egypt; the current status of Palestinian-Israeli relations; the civil war and proposed chemical inspections in Syria; Sunni-Shiite conflict and the revitalized al Qaeda presence in Iraq and the Sunni resurgence in Iraq and Syria; and the on-again-off-again international monitoring of nuclear facilities in Iran, along with discussions of that country's connections to the Syrian regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The use of drone strikes as antiterrorist weapons and their use within U.S. and international law also receive specific attention. Each reading is summarized and contextualized by a concise introduction that serves to enhance the integration of the individual readings across the book. Original source notes are included with each chapter as guides to further reading, and numerous maps provide an essential sense of place. The book also includes a glossary of terms and a register of brief biographies of significant persons.

Author : Vali Nasr
Publisher : Anchor
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780385536486

Get Book

The Dispensable Nation by Vali Nasr Pdf

In a brilliant and revealing book destined to drive debate about the future of American power, Vali Nasr questions America’s dangerous choice to engage less and matter less in the world. Vali Nasr, author of the groundbreaking The Shia Revival, worked closely with Hillary Clinton at the State Department on Afghan and Pakistani affairs. In The Dispensable Nation, he takes us behind the scenes to show how Secretary Clinton and her ally, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, were thwarted in their efforts to guide an ambitious policy in South Asia and the Middle East. Instead, four years of presidential leadership and billions of dollars of U.S. spending failed to advance democracy and development, producing mainly rage at the United States for its perceived indifference to the fate of the region. After taking office in 2009, the Obama administration had an opportunity to fundamentally reshape American foreign policy, Nasr argues, but its fear of political backlash and the specter of terrorism drove it to pursue the same questionable strategies as its predecessor. Meanwhile, the true economic threats to U.S. power, China and Russia, were quietly expanding their influence in places where America has long held sway. Nasr makes a compelling case that behind specific flawed decisions lurked a desire by the White House to pivot away from the complex problems of the Muslim world. Drawing on his unrivaled expertise in Middle East affairs and firsthand experience in diplomacy, Nasr demonstrates why turning our backs is dangerous and, what’s more, sells short American power. The United States has secured stability, promoted prosperity, and built democracy in region after region since the end of the Second World War, he reminds us, and The Dispensable Nation offers a striking vision of what it can achieve when it reclaims its bold leadership in the world.