Keynote Address at ASAP-USIP-VOA Conference on "Getting Beyond Afghanistan in 2014" --- To the extent Afghanistan has impeded at all in the American consciousness over the past year, it has largely been the security transition that has dominated. Most news stories have focused on the U.S. and NATO drawdown and the increasing role of Afghan forces in both conducting and leading the fight. Looking forward, most attention has been paid to the prospects for concluding a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), and the continued uncertainty about whether U.S. and NATO forces will be staying or going. -- In Afghanistan, by contrast, increasing attention is being paid to the other transition that has been put in train, that from one elected leader to another. If the security transition goes badly, it may not make much difference who governs Afghanistan next year, but the reverse is also true, if this political transition does not take place successfully, nothing achieved in the security sphere is likely to endure. -- So if the bad news is that uncertainty about conclusion of the BSA continues to cloud the security transition, the good news is that the political transition continues to move forward on schedule and so far without significant disruption. - More, James F. Dobbins - United States Institute for Peace, at: http://www.state.gov/p/sca/rls/rmks/2014/222675.htm