The Los Angeles Times has reported a significant change in US-Pakistani usage of drone attacks inside Pakistan territory, and that is that both sides have agreed on a framework to work together. US and Pakistani military officials both anonymously acknowledged that they had joined forces in using US Predator drones to attack Al Qaeda and […]
I apologize for my recent absence as I was getting married. Speaking of marriage, while I was gone US President Barack Obama deepened his ties to the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Obama administration held another trilateral meeting with Afghan’s Karzai and Pakistan’s Zardari in DC, defended the US military’s use of airstrikes in […]
Eight countries from the Middle East and Central Asia met in Prague on Friday to push along plans for the Nabucco pipeline. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Egypt signed the agreement while Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan insisted there were more issues to be addressed. Turkmenistan is sending a delegation to Brussels in June for another meeting […]
On March 26, at a meeting in Almaty of state-sponsored environmentalists and ecologists, the Syr Darya was declared too polluted to even be used for irrigation in Kazakhstan. By the time the river weaves through the other Central Asian states, including through the Ferghana Valley, the river has accumulated the runoff from massive amounts of […]
WWII Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West, a PBS-BBC co-production that premieres in the US on May 6, engages, shocks – and misleads. When someone at PBS sent the FPA Russia Blog an advance DVD of the series, I was both excited and puzzled by its audacious plunge into the well-trodden turf […]
I don’t normally use this blog to discuss specific violent attacks in Afghanistan, but these incidents are becoming appalling to read about, I can’t imagine living them. In a series of attacks yesterday, over 25 Afghan civilians, security officials, and government figures were killed. The provincial mayor of the eastern province of Laghman was killed […]
With words of caution, Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that his country will increase its troops in Afghanistan by nearly 50%, moving from around a 1,000 to 1,500. These troops, like most of their European counterparts in NATO, will mainly be training Afghan military and police units as well as providing security for the […]
“Is he the affable front man for the business-as-usual hard-liners, a puppet president who offers soothing remarks, but little else? Or is he a genuine reformer who is edging Russia away from the more heavy-handed practices of Mr. Putin, but needs time to make his mark?” What Clifford Levy writes in today’s New York Times […]
On April 28, the five Central Asian states met to discuss water issues in a summit in Almaty. To no one’s surprise, no agreements of substance were signed. Instead, the leaders bickered and stalled, and in the end, signed an agreement that did not address regional water management. Continuing to provoke its neighbors, on April […]
Dexter Filkins reports in the New York Times that part of Obama’s new Afghanistan policy is an emphasis on curtailing Taliban profits from the opium trade. To do this, US commanders have authorization to attempt to take control of the opium-heavy growing regions of Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul Provinces. I could not discern whether a […]
Two items of note: Weak Opposition to Karzai, So Far… The Afghan Election Commission started excepting nominations for presidential and provincial offices for the upcoming August elections and one thing seems clear, incumbent President Hamid Karzai appears to have a strong chance at retaining his position. No other major candidate has so far put in […]
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the Afghan government in Kabul and with British troops in Helmand Province yesterday and is on to Pakistan today. Brown was there to show his support for his nation’s troops and offer support to President Karzai and his government. Brown announced that he would ‘announce‘ a new British strategy […]
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