Barnett Rubin
Descent into Information Chaos
Focusing on the geographical core of the problem, the Afghanistan- Pakistan region itself, unfortunately most of the material available comes from American sources – which is problematic in two aspects. Firstly, most of the US writers on AfPak focus foremost on the impact of the conflict on their homecountry, judging from Washington, often calling themselves „National Security Experts“ and often missing the gerater picture when imminent threats to the US are not given. Secondly when staying in the area itself the foreigners one meets in public space are non-American. Americans are mostly barred from moving around freely or don’t even come in the first place.
The Regional Perspective
I was reading today’s DieZeit articles on Afghanistan, in particular the current discussions in Germany going on over the air strike on petrol trucks in Kunduz and wondering how here in Central Europe the war in Afghanistan is primarily a war over our morale. As McChrystal has suggested we are leading a completely people-centred COIN [...]
Asia Society Task Force Report
In April this year the Asia Society published a Task Force report (led by Barnett Rubin and Thomas Pickering, the team including Ahmed Rashid and Peter Bergen among others) on the strategy the US administration should take on AfPak. It can be downloaded here. The presentation of the report was recorded on video and included [...]
The Bonn Conference – History and Impact
From a review by Ahmed Rashid (“Afghanistan: On the Brink” in the New York Review of Books) I turned towards another assessment by Barnett Rubin – his pragmatic comments on the targets set by the US and during the Bonn conference, written in 2006 but already addressing many points some pundits pretend to have invented only recently.
The Team
Richard Holbrooke has been appointed by the Obama administration as the special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has subsequently assembled a team of experts under his wings that (according to George Packer in his New Yorker article) numbers around 30 people. Since this team is essential for the further progress of the conflicts in the area, the counter insurgency going on and possible prospects of rebuilding the Afghan economy and keeping Pakistan stable, I want to investigate the team’s members further and provide some information about them and their work to date.
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