The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
Rather than pressuring Hamid Karzai to sign the bilateral security agreement now, waiting for the... more Rather than pressuring Hamid Karzai to sign the bilateral security agreement now, waiting for the new Afghan president to sign the BSA gives it more legitimacy, may help end the Taliban insurgency, and will secure better US-Afghan relations for the future.
An important question underlies the potential for a successful peace process in Afghanistan: If p... more An important question underlies the potential for a successful peace process in Afghanistan: If political negotiations between the Taliban leadership and the Afghan government succeed, will fighters in the field cease their activities, especially illicit funding practices, and accept government legal authority? Interviews conducted in early 2014—well before the announcement of Mullah Omar’s death or the appearance of Islamic State in the region—indicate that a wide gulf separates the motivations of low-level insurgents from their leadership’s ideological objectives. The rank and file fight for multiple reasons, the most significant of which is the financial advantage of association with the movement. Recent studies of the economics of insurgency describe a crime-insurgency-terror nexus that applies to the contemporary Afghan context, albeit requiring adjustment to account for the distinctive political circumstances and wartime history of Afghanistan.
The Transformation Decade in Afghanistan won’t transform much if the motivations for the
Taliban’... more The Transformation Decade in Afghanistan won’t transform much if the motivations for the Taliban’s foot soldiers aren’t understood, or curtailed.
The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be ab... more The delicate yet volatile balance of jihadi movements and insurgents within Afghanistan may be about to shift.
Rather than pressuring Hamid Karzai to sign the bilateral security agreement now, waiting for the... more Rather than pressuring Hamid Karzai to sign the bilateral security agreement now, waiting for the new Afghan president to sign the BSA gives it more legitimacy, may help end the Taliban insurgency, and will secure better US-Afghan relations for the future.
An important question underlies the potential for a successful peace process in Afghanistan: If p... more An important question underlies the potential for a successful peace process in Afghanistan: If political negotiations between the Taliban leadership and the Afghan government succeed, will fighters in the field cease their activities, especially illicit funding practices, and accept government legal authority? Interviews conducted in early 2014—well before the announcement of Mullah Omar’s death or the appearance of Islamic State in the region—indicate that a wide gulf separates the motivations of low-level insurgents from their leadership’s ideological objectives. The rank and file fight for multiple reasons, the most significant of which is the financial advantage of association with the movement. Recent studies of the economics of insurgency describe a crime-insurgency-terror nexus that applies to the contemporary Afghan context, albeit requiring adjustment to account for the distinctive political circumstances and wartime history of Afghanistan.
The Transformation Decade in Afghanistan won’t transform much if the motivations for the
Taliban’... more The Transformation Decade in Afghanistan won’t transform much if the motivations for the Taliban’s foot soldiers aren’t understood, or curtailed.
Uploads
Papers by James Weir
Taliban’s foot soldiers aren’t understood, or curtailed.
Taliban’s foot soldiers aren’t understood, or curtailed.