Barnett R. Rubin is a regular contributor to Informed Comment: Global Affairs. ICGA is a group blog by academics covering international politics and foreign affairs. It is especially concerned with Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Israel/Palestine and other countries where local political movements or governments pose special foreign policy challenges to Washington. The authors of this blog know their regions well and are now using their expertise to address current events for the wider public.
You can read key points from some of Dr. Rubin's recent posts below or visit the ICGA site to see the entire archive of articles.
Death of Michael Vinay Bhatia in Khost Province (RC/E), Afghanistan
May 10, 2008
Michael Vinay Bhatia, a researcher well known to many of those working on Afghanistan, died in an IED attack on his vehicle in Khost Province, Afghanistan, on May 7, 2008. Michael was working as a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Defense as a member of the Human Terrain System of the Army.
Read more.
Marines Stuck Protecting Opium in Helmand
May 8, 2008
An AP story quoting me about the deployment of U.S. Marines to Garmser District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan is making the rounds on the Internets, and mostly being misinterpreted by conspiracy theorists who think it shows that the US government (or the "Bush crime family") is engaged in drug trafficking. A surprising number of them seem to be Ron Paul supporters. I thought I would try to explain what I think this story is about and what my quoted comments meant.
Read more.
In RC/E did David Ignatius a Stately Pleasure Dome Decree
May 8, 2008
I never paid much attention to David Ignatius. One of the luxuries of living in New York is not having to take the editorial page of the Washington Post too seriously. I did not even have a clear idea of what his views or journalistic habits were. But then I appeared on the NewsHour with him last week. I went into the studio thinking I would just give my analysis of the situation in Afghanistan after the attack on the Mujahidin Victory Day Celebration in Kabul, but instead found myself being asked to respond to his inane repetitions of PR handouts from the Defense Department.
Read more.
Security and Global Food Crisis
May 8, 2008
In two previous posts (Taliban?- What's That Got to Do with the Price of Bread? and More on Wheat, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Global Security) I discussed the impact of the global food crisis on security in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When I first wrote about this in February, the global food shortage was only starting to attract media attention. Since then many articles and surveys have appeared, including a cover article in the Economist, which compared the impact of the crisis to a "silent tsunami."
Read more.
Data on Security in Afghanistan's Regional Command/East
May 2, 2008
My debate with David Ignatius on the NewsHour has sparked a discussion about security in NATO's Regional Command/East, has sparked a debate about the reported success of U.S. counter-insurgency efforts. Washington Post "reporter"/government stenographer David Ignatius claimed that "the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy has begun to get some traction." In a subsequent post, in addition to criticizing the helicopter tour/PR handout school of "journalism," I cited data showing that in the first quarter of 2008 attacks by anti-government elements in the east had increased 30 percent over the same period last year.
Read more.
Rubin and Ignatius Debate Afghanistan on the NewsHour
May 1, 2008
I appeared tonight on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in a segment on Afghanistan. Margaret Warner interviewed me along with the Washington Post's David Ignatius, back from a one-week tour of Afghanistan escorted by the U.S. embassy and military. He claims to have reported only what he saw with his own eyes, but he does not understand even what he saw with his own eyes very well.
Read more.
Debate on Commitment to Afghanistan
April 28, 2008
The current (May-June 2008) issue of The American Interest includes a debate on long-term strategy in Afghanistan. Army Colonel Thomas Lynch argues that only a long-term U.S.-Afghanistan security treaty, combined with reassertion of the U.S. lead of the international forces, will stabilize the country by signaling to all and sundry that the U.S. will not leave. I respond that unilateral commitments will only provoke more resistance from Afghans and regional powers, and that Afghan stability ultimately depends on lowering the level of threat through multilateral diplomacy and political negotiations.
Read more.
Against Holocaust Denial, Against Naqba Denial
April 27, 2008
May 8, Israeli Independence Day, will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, an occasion to be marked in Israel and Jewish communities around the world with celebration. As always, Independence Day is preceded by Holocaust Remembrance Day (May 2) and Yom ha-Zikaron (Memorial Day, on May 7, in memory of those fallen for the state.
May 15 will mark the 60th anniversary of the Naqba (catastrophe), as Palestinians call the founding of Israel and their consequent defeat, expulsion, and exile. Palestinian and other communities will mark the day with mourning, protest, and anger.
Read more.
NWFP Peace Plan Tabled
April 27, 2008
Khalid Aziz, head of the Awami National Party Task Force in Peshawar has published a preview of the peace plan to be set before the Northwest Frontier Province (Paskhtunkhwa) Provincial Assembly in the coming days. The plan proposes a "multi-dimensional approach," rather than focusing lopsidedly on the military.
Read more.
Negotiate with Bitter Pashtuns who Cling to Religion, Guns
April 21, 2008
Ten days ago the new Chief Minister of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province (soon to be renamed Pakhtunkhwa) gave his inaugural speech to the Provincial Legislative Assembly. He promised that "in the next session of the provincial assembly we shall present a comprehensive peace plan for our province." He promised to look for "a negotiated settlement to the problem of militancy" despite "many rejectionists at local, regional and international levels with various agendas and positions who might jeopardize the process."
Read more.
Fantastic Hypocrisy -- ABC on Obama and the Weather Underground
April 17, 2008
At last night's Clinton-Obama debate hosted by ABC News, former Clinton White House official George Stephanopoulous asked Barack Obama about his acquaintance with William Ayers, a former leader of the Weather Underground. The Weather Underground was a short-lived splinter group of the Revolutionary Youth Movement faction of the Students for Democratic Society...I know all this because as a 19 year old member of the Yale SDS chapter I attended the 1969 SDS conference. Subsequently my telephones were tapped by the New Haven police and I was overheard on an FBI National Security wiretap of the Black Panther Party office in New Haven.
Read more.
More Misleading Talking Points on Drugs in Afghanistan from UNODC, USG, etc.
April 13, 2008
Poppy harvest is approaching, and it's eradication time in southern Afghanistan! This is as good a time as any to look back on the debate I have been having with UNODC and the US Government over the relationship of the drug economy to poverty and counter-narcotics strategy. My colleague Jake Sherman and I presented our findings and analysis in a report released in February, which included in an appendix a letter that I wrote to the administrator of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa.
Read more.
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