Tag archive for ‘Afghanistan’
The Risks of Withdrawal
Entering a war is easy; getting out of it is the hard part. That axiom is particularly true for the United States today, as it muddles through three wars – two of which were forced upon it (Afghanistan and the “war on terror”), with the third (Iraq) started unnecessarily by a US administration blinded by [...]
McChrystal’s Replacement Marks the End of the ‘Big Macs’ in Afghanistan
In a spectacular move President Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal after the Rolling Stone magazine broke a story reporting his staff’s and his own disrespectful remarks about the president and his national security team. The incident is not only meat for the tireless hosts of cable news shows; it also represents another chapter in the [...]
Social Democracy and Human Security
In spite of the disastrous consequences of the Iraq war, there is still a need for maintaining global capabilities for human security. Social democracy has to rediscover its internationalist and humanitarian roots. I do have more general views about the future of social democracy, which I will summarise in the first half of this article. [...]
The new European Commission needs to use its Experience to stabilise fragile States
In the face of the political and military deterioration in Afghanistan international ambitions have been radically scaled back. The initial intent was to turn Afghanistan swiftly into a replica of a Western democracy. The new objective is to settle for any government that blocks terrorism. State-building has been abandoned both because it is evidently difficult, [...]
