August 20, 2018
It's time to talk to the Taliban about peace
In recent days there has been a lot more gruesome news from Afghanistan. Taliban fighters invaded the strategic city of Ghazni, killing a hundred Afghan troops, dozens of civilians and displacing tens of thousands of people. In Kabul a suicide bomber killed students preparing for university exams.
Seventeen years after the US-led coalition invasion, peace would seem as far away as ever … and yet, the Taliban and the US State Department are talking, as recently as last month, in Doha.
We speak to Christopher Kolenda – adjunct Senior Fellow at the Centre for a New American Security; former Senior Advisor on Afghanistan and Pakistan to U.S. Under Secretary of Defence; former US Army taskforce commander in Afghanistan.
Listen to this segment and more from ABC
More from CNAS
-
Podcast
Indo-Pacific Security / Middle East Security
Why Trump’s Efforts to Force Iran to Concede to U.S. Demands Aren’t Working"So far, there has been no combination of carrots and sticks that has brought Iran to the terms that the Americans want. And if the idea is that, at some point soon, Iran will...
By Richard Fontaine
-
With War on Its Doorstep, Iraq Taps a Political Outsider to Become Prime Minister
Podcast
After a long political impasse, Ali al-Zaidi has been tapped to become Iraq’s new prime minister. A wealthy oligarch, al-Zaidi is seen as both a compromise candidate, but also...
By Hamzeh Hadad
-
The Russia-Iran Partnership
Commentary
The United States needs to prioritize increasing the cost of Russia’s support for Iran; sanctions alone are not sufficient and often encourage U.S. adversaries to get more inv...
By Delaney Soliday
-
Commentary
Middle East Security / National Security Law
Continuing Crisis in Strait of Hormuz: Why Iran’s Hold is Illegal and U.S. Military Force Alone FailsIran has drawn explicit lessons from this disruption and is now seeking to institutionalize its control....
By Mark Nevitt
