Registan’s Afghanistan News & Analysis Archive

Since the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC in 2001, significant international effort has been poured into creating a stable and secure Afghanistan. Much of the public and media attention has been focused on combat operations, the relationship between security in Pakistan and security in Afghanistan, and corruption in Afghanistan’s government. While these are important issues, critical questions about what the future holds for Afghanistan and its neighbors linger, especially with the looming deadline for ISAF to turn over responsibility for security to the government of Afghanistan.

Registan.net frequently features news and analysis on Afghanistan, with special emphasis on ISAF’s efforts to stabilize the country and how the war in Afghanistan shapes the overall South and Central Asia policies of the United States. Several of our contributors have worked for government, business, and development clients providing analytic support on culture, society, geography, and security in Afghanistan. Coupled with our strong expertise and experience in Central Asia, Registan is uniquely poised to helping organizations navigate the challenges and identify the opportunities that will rise in Afghanistan and South Asia in decade to come.

Let Registan puts its Afghanistan expertise and experience to work with research, analysis, and training services tailored to your individual needs. For more information on how we can help you and your organization better understand Afghanistan and the other countries of South Asia, visit our services page.

ISAF Explains Security Using Schools and Cellphones…and It’s Adorable

by Sunny in Kabul

ISAF‘s stopped releasing it’s monthly numbers, so for the duration of Operation Ready or Not we’re going to be stuck with whatever press releases they deign to unleash upon us huddled masses. Which is what we had here last week. It was yet another plethora of misguided metrics and an apparent misunderstanding of what’s really [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Bing West Writes for the NRO on Afghanistan

by Sunny in Kabul

The National Review Online is widely regarded as a paragon of rational thought and well-reasoned argument. They do not deign to dabble in the petty squabblings reserved for lesser publications like the Daily Caller, but regularly take a moral high ground. Such moral high ground can, at times, be construed as being terribly racist-y, but [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Book Reviews: William Dalrymple’s Return of a King and Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s Little America

by Alec Metz

This is a review of two books, one early (Return of a King doesn’t come out in the U.S. until April) and one woefully late (Little America was released in June of 2012). I’ve put them together given their prognostications, stated or otherwise, for the NATO/ISAF campaign in Afghanistan, because both authors are not traditional historians, [...]

Read the full article →

More Fun with ISAF’s Numbers: I Blog for the AAN

by Sunny in Kabul

One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do in writing about Afghanistan is guest blogging over at the Afghan Analysts Network. It’s run by some of the smartest people around when it comes to Afghanistan, and it’s a no-kidding privilege to be able to write for them on occasion.Before we learned yesterday that ISAF [...]

Read the full article →

ISAF Walks Back Insurgent Attack Numbers, Does Not Understand the Interwebs

by Sunny in Kabul

You may have heard the news that ISAF is walking back what it originally reported in January, that there was a 7% decrease in “Enemy Initiated Attacks” over the course of 2012. You may have also heard the news that said report has been taken down. I’m guessing there’s going to be a webmaster opening [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Big Trouble in Little Wardak: Karzai Kicks the SOF Kids to the Kurb

by Sunny in Kabul

President Karzai on Sunday ordered the removal of all US Special Operations Forces (SOF) from Wardak province within the next two weeks. Coming as it does on the heels of his latest decree that ANSF can’t call for foreign airstrikes, this bodes ill for US plans in Afghanistan in the coming months. It’s one thing for [...]

Read the full article →

In Response to Mark Jacobson’s Karzai-the-Ungrateful Piece

by Sunny in Kabul

Writing for CNN’s Security Clearance, Mark Jacobson, who served as the Deputy NATO Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) in Afghanistan from 2009-2011, posits that the man sitting in the Presidential Palace in Kabul needs to mend his ways lest things go awry. The ungrateful twerp. What’s puzzling is that Jacobson’s analysis, coming as it does from [...]

Read the full article →

If You Build It, They Will…Well, Not Sure What They’ll Do

by Sunny in Kabul

This week on the blog we’ve been looking at the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and some of Sopko’s recent findings in Afghanistan. An infographic here, an interview there, and now I think, kids, you’re ready for something really scary. Not Lindsay-Lohan-wants-to-open-a-restaurant scary. But scary. One of the keys to ISAF getting out [...]

Read the full article →

General Allen Retires: Needs to Start a Blog

by Sunny in Kabul

We learned today that General John Allen, whose primary responsibilities in Afghanistan included emailing Jilly Kelley and apologizing for killing Afghan civilians, decided that he would retire and not seek the top NATO spot in Europe. It’s rumored that the next SACEUR will actually have his own email account, vs. the telegraph that NATO had [...]

Read the full article →

Central Asia 2014: The Terror

by Nathan Hamm

Yesterday, Eurasia Daily Monitor carried a “[x] in Central Asia after NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan” story, the kind of reporting and analysis that is sure to be a fixture in all Central Asia focused publications throughout this year. This particular story deals with militant groups threatening to return to Central Asia after NATO’s withdrawal. Should [...]

7 comments Read the full article →