Archive of Joshua Foust

Joshua Foust is a Fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. His research focuses primarily on Central and South Asia. Joshua is a correspondent for The Atlantic and a columnist for PBS Need to Know. Joshua appears regularly on the BBC World News, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua's writing has appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, Foreign Policy’s AfPak Channel, the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor. Follow him on twitter: @joshuafoust

Joshua has written 1849 articles at Registan.


A Chinese Kyrgyzstan?

by Joshua Foust

The role of China in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan in particular, is the topic of much debate these days. By “these days,” of course, I really mean “the last several years” but this blog has been trying to follow the topic for the last several months (see here). Typically, the line goes, is a variation of [...]

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The Farce of Afghan Success

by Joshua Foust
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Army War College professor Steven Metz has a provocative argument in WPR this week: With the endgame near for large-scale U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, Americans have already begun to debate the broader implications of the conflict. Many have painted it as a failure, even a strategic fiasco. But it is not. Given the dynamics [...]

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Tashiev Leads Bishkek Protests

by Joshua Foust
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There were protests today in Bishkek. From the pictures Akipress is posting (including the one above), the protesters appear to be lead by Kamchybek Tashiev, a divisive and outspoken southern politician from Jalal-Abad. Radio Azzatyk has video: It seems to be primarily about nationalizing the gold mine in Kumtor, though protesters are also demanding better [...]

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The Failing War in a Nutshell

by Joshua Foust

Just in case you still, somehow, thought everything was on track. From the Wall Street Journal today: Afghan officials said Sunday that a Taliban rocket landed near U.S. troops on patrol Saturday afternoon in eastern Wardak province. In response, they said, American forces—thinking they had come under attack from Afghan troops—fired on a nearby Afghan [...]

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Pakistan’s Sickly Drone Problem

by Joshua Foust

Last week, a group of law students and their professors released a study about drones. Needless to say, it was what you’d expect from law students trying to address a social issue: it was full of holes and made very little sense but had great emotional impact. So of course I had to pick it [...]

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Afghanistan Things

by Joshua Foust

Some links, because it’s all too exhausting to cover in any detail. Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand, is out, part of an anti-graft move by Hamid Karzai. Mangal is beloved by the US and UK because he was seen as better than the former government of Helmand, Sher Muhammad Akhunzada, who was found with [...]

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US Strategy in Afghanistan Collapses

by Joshua Foust

Tonight we learned from NBC that US-Afghan joint operations have been suspended. CBS and the AP have similar stories. This is, in a word, disaster. The training mission is the foundation of the current strategy. Without that mission, the strategy collapses. The war is adrift, and it’s hard to see how anyone can avoid a [...]

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Realigning the Haqqanis & Other Concerns

by Joshua Foust
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The U.S. recently moved the Haqqani Network onto the FTO list — something long overdue, as I explain for The Atlantic: Arguably, the biggest barrier to a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan is not the insurgency itself, but Pakistan. Islamabad has stood in the way of negotiation efforts it dislikes, and has declined to participate in [...]

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From the British Condescension Files, Pt. 8000000000

by Joshua Foust
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What is it with British media and incredibly condescending articles about Central Asia? Behold the first hundred and thirty words of this BBC article about a (very good) exhibit of Kazakh archaeological finds at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC: In the 2006 spoof documentary Borat, the eponymous hero travels from Kazakhstan to the US to [...]

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The Economist’s Kyrgyz Condescension

by Joshua Foust
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Mocking the Economist’s awful coverage of Central Asia is something of a tradition here at Registan: see here, here, here, here, here, and here for examples. We’ve mocked it over the years for the same reason many others have: their smarmy coverage suggests a cleverness that familiarity with the facts simply won’t support. This week, [...]

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