Resource Library

Counter Insurgency

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Afghanistan’s Reasons for Optimism

By Craig Charney and James Dobbins | The Washington Post | May 31, 2011 | 4 pages

This article discusses the findings of a Washington Post-ABC News Poll in which Afghans express their optimism about their future. This surprising optimism has deep roots in the underlying realities. Afghanistan people are making sensible judgments.

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The Surge is Working

By Craig Charney | Newsweek | March 1, 2010 | 4 pages

This Daily Beast article discusses why President Obama’s Afghanistan counterinsurgency troop surge strategy is working. Taliban’s influence is dwindling all across Afghanistan, bar Helmand province—its stronghold. Afghanistan’s demography, sociology, military situation, and politics jointly explain this evolvement.

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Counter Insurgency

Report | January 29, 2009 | 23 pages

This presentation evaluates public attitudes in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. The report studies how public discontent and attitudes further extremism or governance in these countries. Differing components of extremism, state capacity, and policy implications are compared between the three countries.

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There’s Grounds for Hope in Afghanistan

By Craig Charney and Isobel Coleman | CFR.org | June 18, 2007 | 5 pages

This article for The Globe and Mail discusses the reasons to be hopeful with regards to the potential for positive changes in Afghanistan: Afghans themselves are changing their society, with Afghan women playing a leading role. Despite the Taliban’s military revival, Afghan women have won broad support for their rights to study, work, and vote, largely gained since the Taliban’s 2001 ouster, and overwhelmingly reject their former oppressors. But, at the same time, Afghans are struggling to reconcile many of their Islamic traditions with the modern world, as the case of women also shows.