Counter-Insurgency in Afghanistan: Whose Violence is it Anyway?
Memo #305 By Dur-e-Aden – dur-e-aden [at] hotmail.com While fighting an insurgency, it is important never to harm civilians. Doing so will increase recruitment for insurgent groups and result in fuelling the conflict. This is known as the “population-centric” counter-insurgency doctrine. By this logic, it also follows that if insurgents use violence on the local […]
Afghanistan Elections: Why Should We Care?
Memo #284 By Dur-e-Aden – dur-e-aden [at] hotmail.com This week Afghans headed to the polls to help usher in a transfer of power from one democratic government to the next. While some observers hail this as a major achievement, others worry what lingering issues of rampant Taliban violence, ethnic politics, widespread corruption and fraud during […]