Publication

This report discusses the security situation in Afghanistan as of spring 2006. The author points out that while the country has re-established basic institutions of government, it has barely started to make them work. Key challenges for the Afghan government and its international supporters include an ongoing terrorist insurgency based in Pakistan, a drug trade that dominates the economy and corrupts the state, and pervasive poverty and insecurity. The author argues that to help Afghanistan, the US should push the Pakistani government to arrest Taliban leaders and take aggressive measures to close down the networks supporting suicide bombers.