Can Neutlity Bring Peace to Afghanistan?
By Wahab Raofi This article was published by The National Interest Due to its location in Central Asia, Afghanistan has long found itself at the center of a rivalry between its neighbors and their regional powers. During the 19th century, Afghanistan was caught up in a conflict between Russia and Great Britain, known as the Great Game, where Great Britain used Afghanistan as a buffer state to protect Russian advances into British India. Today, the game continues, wrote Barnett Rubin in a 2008 Op-ed in Foreign Affairs Magazine. However, Barnett now calls it the Grand Bargain — being played out between India and Pakistan to Afghanistan’s east, and Iran to its west. Each region is desperate to keep Afghanistan under its thumb in an effort to control their rival’s influence. They readily do so by finding and hiring Afghani faction to carry out their proxy wars. Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic society, comprised of many groups and tribes. Among them are Pashtuns, Tajiks,...