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.

Translation of Statement by Afghan Government on ISI
July 15, 2008
I received this text from the Office of President Karzai this morning. There may be an edited version available later. Note the careful distinction between the elected government of Pakistan and the military, including the ISI. If only all of our policy makers and journalists were equally careful.
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Afghan Government Charges Pakistan Is World's Main Source of Terrorism
July 14, 2008
At today's weekly cabinet meeting, the government of Afghanistan, chaired by President Hamid Karzai, formally endorsed a statement charging Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate with responsibility for most of the terrorism carried out in Afghanistan.
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Notes from Kabul and Kandahar on Recent Bombings
July 14, 2008
In response to my previous post on the killing of civilians in the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul and in a bombing by the U.S. in Eastern Afghanistan, BBC correspondent Alistair Leithead wrote, "We went up to the bomb site in Nangarhar yesterday...here's the report": "On a hillside high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan there are three charred clearings where the American bombs struck. Scattered around are chunks of twisted metal, blood stains and small fragments of sequined and brightly decorated clothes - the material Afghan brides wear on their wedding day..."
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Afghan Government Charges on Killing Afghans -- U.S. 47, Terrorists 41
July 11, 2008
The Afghan government charged that Pakistan's intelligence service had organized [the attack on the Indian Embassy]. After a couple days of silence from the U.S. government, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates answered a question about it...The delay in making a statement and the rather mild language used seems to me (without any direct evidence) to indicate internal dispute over how to respond.
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Afghanistan Accuses Pakistan of Responsibility for Attack on Indian Embassy
July 8, 2008
In a press conference yesterday, Humayun Hamidzada, the official spokesman of President Karzai (and a former colleague at the Center on International Cooperation at NYU) virtually accused Pakistan of responsibility for the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul yesterday.
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Attack on Indian Embassy in Kabul
July 7, 2008
After the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul this morning, I wrote the following comment in response to a query from a journalist: The war in Afghanistan is often depicted as a battle between jihadi groups and the U.S. or the west. But Afghanistan is also a theater for the struggle between India and Pakistan and for the domestic struggles of Pakistan.
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More Counter-Narcotics Success in Afghanistan's "Opium-Free" North
July 1, 2008
Health Warning: This post may contain irony. Readers impervious to irony should consult other blogs.
UNODC just published this year's World Drug Report, warning about rising heroin production in Afghanistan, but congratulating itself and its drug-warrior allies for the "fact" that "the problem is much localized. Most cultivation (80 per cent) took place in 5 southern provinces, which are the most unstable."
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The Dilemma of anti-Extremist Pakistanis
July 1, 2008
Yesterday the New York Times ran a front-page article on the growth of al-Qaida in Pakistan and the failure of the Bush administration to devise any strategy to confront it...As usual, the Times article presented the alternatives as do nothing, Predator missile strikes, or invasion by U.S. Special Forces, without any discussion of competing Pakistani and Pashtun political agendas for the tribal agencies. A successful and sustainable strategy has to be carried out together with allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, within a political framework that they support.
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Ahmed Rashid's New Book, Descent into Chaos
June 29, 2008
Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani author of Taliban (the largest selling university press book since the invention of movable type) has published a new book, taking up the story of Afghanistan, its region, and the U.S. where he left off. Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia is, as far as I know, the first attempt at a comprehensive account of international policy toward Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia since 9/11, and as such is utterly indispensable.
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Counter-Insurgency in Afghanistan -- Not a Khost of a Chance
June 29, 2008
As I have chronicled in this space, administration apologists such as Ann Marlowe and David Ignatius have been claiming Eastern Afghanistan in general and the tiny province of Khost in particular as proof of U.S. success in Afghanistan...I guess they had a visit from the Republican good news fairy. I am not so blessed. I have to rely on information.
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NPR -- Poppies to Perfumes in Afghanistan
June 4, 2008
Ivan Watson of National Public Radio broadcast a story from Jalalabad this morning about Gulestan's effort to develop the essential oil and fragrance industry in Afghanistan: "Since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, poppy production has skyrocketed in the country. The Afghan heroin industry is by far the largest in the world. For the past several years, a group of Afghan and foreign businessmen has been trying to offer an alternative, by urging farmers to grow flowers for perfume instead of for drugs. But it has been a frustrating and costly project."
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Insurgent Attacks Still Up in Afghanistan's East
May 28, 2008
I have now received the complete data for RC/E through week 20. The level of attacks initiated by Taliban and other anti-government forces continues to exceed last year's, despite the vaunted successes of US COIN efforts. One of the main explanations for the level of violence is a significant increase in infiltration from Pakistan's Tribal Areas, which are directly adjacent to RC/E. The Pakistan army has used the election of a new civilian government as a blame-shifting cover for its decision to withdraw from FATA and conclude a truce with the Pakistani Taliban. This truce has enabled the militants to focus their energy on Afghanistan.
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