ASP Senior Fellow Bernard Finel Featured in “Foreign Policy”
ASP Senior Fellow Dr. Bernard Finel recently wrote a piece for Foreign Policy posing 10 questions that must be answered if the United States is to justify further involvement in Afghanistan.
A sampling of Dr. Finel’s questions:
(1) Why does the possibility that al Qaeda might establish a sanctuary in Afghanistan justify a multi-year commitment of American forces, while the reality of an al Qaeda sanctuary in Pakistan justifies nothing more than financial support to the Pakistani government and occasional Predator strikes?…
(3) What precisely is the nature of the risk a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan would pose to the stability of Pakistan? From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, and yet by most indications, Pakistan was under less threat from Islamist radicals then than now. What has changed to make Afghanistan now the lynchpin on which the stability of Pakistan rests?…
(10) How significant is the fact that the “big three” — Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mullah Omar — remain at large and that an American withdrawal from Afghanistan might allow them to return? If all three were to die, would that change the calculus about American interests in Afghanistan?
To read all 10 Questions, read the article here.
See also a recent Flash Point post by Dr. Finel on COIN tactics in Afghanistan.
