Afghanstan: Challenges Before Joe Biden Administration
Submitted by asiaadmin2 on Sat, 12/19/2020 - 06:01
Paper No. 6713 Dated 19-Dec-2020
Guest Column By Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra
The Incoming Joe Biden's administration will have lesser options in dealing with the Afghan insurgency. It cannot choose to go offensive despite the fact that the peace table has not registered any notable progress thus far and insurgency continues unabated.
Considering the protracted nature of insurgency and squandering of American resources, will power and popular support after almost two decades of military entanglement, the new administration will not choose an unsuccessful strategy of the outgoing Trump administration which sought to address the Afghan situation by adopting an offensive gesture soon after assuming office through measures like increasing the number of American troops and resuming drone strikes – a strategy which was later discarded and Washington was forced to open direct talks with the Taliban in view of unremitting insurgency in many pockets of the country and mounting civilian as well as troops’ casualties. Thus, the Biden administration has no alternative except throwing its complete weight behind the peace process.