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As the U.S. and allied forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, policymakers are scrambling to leave the nation as stable and secure as possible.
As the international community debates how to slow the bloodshed in Syria, leaders in the Syrian government and the opposition have tried to use elections to gain popular support. Yet parliamentary elections in Syria and the presidential election at the Syrian National Council in May both led to more division. In a new backgrounder from the Institute for the Study of War, Research Analyst Elizabeth O’Bagy examines the effects of the May 2012 parliamentary elections in Syria and the power struggle within the Syrian National Council and other developing political opposition groups.
At NATO’s summit in Chicago over the weekend, the focus will be on Afghanistan, and following President Barack Obama’s decision to transition security leadership to Afghans by mid-2013, international leaders will be pressed to make long-term commitments for the transition there.
As UN monitors arrive and the international leaders continue to debate how to support the opposition in Syria, the next step may be determining who would lead if President Bashar al-Assad’s government falls.
As U.S. policymakers debate how to draw down involvement in Afghanistan, a number of challenges remain. Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War have closely examined two critical issues, the negotiations for the release of detainees from Guantanamo Bay and the reforms needed to run a fair presidential election in 2014.
As participants head to Baghdad for this week’s Arab League Summit, the Institute for the Study of War takes stock of the opportunities and challenges for Arab leaders at the conference.
Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War, and retired Army Lt. Gen. James Dubik, a senior fellow at ISW, will testify this afternoon at a Congressional hearing on Iraq.
The Institute for the Study of War has published three products examining the conflict in Afghanistan in preparation for ISAF Commander General John Allen’s testimony on Capitol Hill this week.
In “ Syria’s Armed Opposition,” Joseph Holliday, a senior research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, delves into the umbrella organization for many of the country’s internal opposition groups.
Most protests in Afghanistan over the past week have not been spontaneous or independent spates of anti-Americanism, tracking done by analysts at the Institute for the Study of War shows. Instead external actors, insurgent groups and Afghan political factions aiming to harm their local rivals have orchestrated most violent protests.