Afghanistan Partition ‘Plan B’ Only Benefits the Enemy - Nemat Sadat

Robert Blackwill’s “Partition as Plan B” article appearing in the current issue of Foreign Affairs is unconvincing and if implemented would have devastating consequences.

Let’s not be Pollyannaish by banking on false hope and wishful thinking. Blackwill’s alternative is neither a quick fix nor something new. It closely resembles what the British and Russian empires during the nineteenth century experimented with, in the so-called “Great Game,” but failed miserably in trying to accomplish.

Flash forward to today, in the “New Great Game,” and you now have many more stakeholders vying for monopoly over the resource-rich and geo-strategically positioned Afghanistan. Partitioning Afghanistan into mini-states would upset the regional power balance and endanger the world’s only non-nuclear state that is encircled by nuclear-armed neighbors. Allowing the Taliban to annex Afghan territories will trigger global shocks and benefit the terrorist cause. ... More - Afghanistan Partition ‘Plan B’ Only Benefits the Enemy - Nemat Sadat
Plan B in Afghanistan Foreign Affairs - Robert D. Blackwill