Paper
Julia Gurganus, Eugene Rumer
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"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
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"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "russia",
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"projects": [
"The Return of Global Russia: A Reassessment of the Kremlin’s International Agenda"
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"Afghanistan",
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Source: Getty
In The Media
Russia’s Afghanistan Strategy
Over the last couple of years, the gap between the Russian and U.S. strategies in Afghanistan has grown. Russia increasingly believes that the U.S. approach isn’t working and is convinced that it must be prepared to deal with an unstable Afghanistan on its own.
Published on Jan 2, 2018
Source: Foreign Affairs
For the last decade and a half, Russia and the United States have had largely similar aims in Afghanistan: preventing chaos and the reemergence of a safe haven for terrorists. That convergence has allowed the two countries to work together. But beneath the surface, there are important differences. Although both want stability, they define it in very different ways. The U.S. approach is founded on creating a strong central government in Kabul and a well-equipped and well-trained national security force; Russia, meanwhile, works with a wide range of actors, some of which compete directly with the government in Kabul. Moscow has even reached out to the Taliban, legitimizing a group that continues to threaten the security of both the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO forces.
About the Author
Julia Gurganus
Former Nonresident Scholar, Russia and Eurasia Program
Julia Gurganus was a nonresident scholar with the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focus is on trends in Russian foreign policy and Russia-U.S. relations.
- Russia’s Global Ambitions in Perspective
- Russia: Playing a Geopolitical Game in Latin AmericaArticle
Julia Gurganus
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
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