What divides Afghans more than ethnicity or ideology is an unwillingness to share power and a winner-takes-all approach to politics.

While many Afghans are highly ambivalent about the presence of foreign forces in their country, they fear a return to civil war even more.

In an apparent effort to box President Obama into a long-term commitment to the war, the generals oversold the troop surge's potential.…

Even if all essential parties are interested in a negotiated settlement, getting to yes is no sure thing.

Unlike Iraq, in Afghanistan an international consensus supports common goals for the entire operation, providing a test of whether the ‘international community’ is capable of effective joint action to make societies secure, even when their insecurity threatens the whole world. So far the results indicate that governments and international institutions are not up to the job.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah serves as minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Chairman Hamid Karzai. Abdullah, who was a close aide to Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, previously served as spokesman, un representative, and deputy foreign minister for the pre-Taliban government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani. Dr. Abdullah was interviewed by Current History consulting editor Sean Patrick Murphy in Washington, D.C. this January.

September 11 revealed the dangers of allowing so-called humanitarian emergencies or failed states to fester—not only to neighboring countries but to the world. An American administration that came to power denouncing efforts at ‘nation building’ and criticizing reliance on international organizations and agreements has now proclaimed that it needs to ensure a ‘stable Afghanistan’ to prevent that country from ever again becoming a haven for terrorists.