Diplomacy and International Politics

Trump administration claims of progress in talks with the Taliban have sparked fears even among the president's allies that his impatience with the war in Afghanistan will lead him to withdraw troops too soon, leaving the country at risk of returning to the same volatile condition that prompted the invasion in the first place.

Cathryn Cluver, interviewed on radio station Deutschlandfunk Nova, offers analysis of President Trump's August 22 speech concerning the war in Afghnistan. She notes that the president's current point of departure is the change in role of US forces in Afghanistan, but  deep diplomatic strategy is needed to ensure the cooperation of Pakistan, India and government and security forces in Kabul and the provinces - the reality of which is unlikely given that the State Department abandoned its Special Envoy and still doesn't have an Ambassador in Kabul. 

As the Trump Administration considers options to break the stalemate in the 15-year war in Afghanistan, it is important to look beyond military approaches. The roots of Afghanistan's problems require a political surge in support of President Ashraf Ghani’s government.

Ambassadors Daniel Feldman, Marc Grossman, and Rick Olson speak with Faculty Director Nicholas Burns about the options for reconciliation in Afghanistan and US strategic objectives in the region. 

New York Times columnist and former Fisher Family Fellow with the Future of Diplomacy Project, Roger Cohen, reveals his thoughts on the recent string of ISIS-affiliated attacks from Paris to San Bernadino and reflects on what these events will mean for U.S. strategy in the Middle East.

President Obama’s foreign policy has been a regular punching bag for Republican presidential candidates, but many of their criticisms are facile. The next president — from whichever party — will have to confront the same puzzle that Obama has faced about how best to use U.S. power in a world that resists military solutions.

Last weekend’s deadly attack on an international hospital in Afghanistan was a reminder of the terrible war that grinds on there, with Afghan civilians caught in the crossfire.

"One of the surprising aspects of following U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East from within the United States, as I have done for several months now on an extended visit, is the peculiar gap between ordinary citizens’ sentiments and the fact that the United States is actively militarily engaged in several countries in the region. This dangerous trend means that the American president — it does not matter which party he is from, because they both act similarly irresponsibly abroad — can continue to use the country’s enormous capabilities to wage war around the world at will."