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Talking to the Taliban
The author 'talking to the taliban'! Obama’s Afghanistan strategy review is the West’s last chance to get it right in that troubled country, but will it work? His emphasis on governance and development...
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Afghan Journalists Boycott World Press Freedom Day
Of all the groups to turn their back on this year’s World Press Freedom day in Afghanistan, few would have put their money on the Afghan journalists themselves. Neither of the two main independent...
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Strategic Comms Conference: New Media
Here in the bunker – it is a rather swish conference room but there’s a serious shortage of natural light – we’ve been looking at new media and strategic communications. Three themes from the new...
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Message Creep in Afghanistan
Following the two day Albany Associates conference on strategic communications held in London recently, one thing stands out. Given the accumulated wisdom of the past few decades in the broad field of...
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The changing theatre of Strategic Communications
The Albany Associates London conference on strategic communications noted some success in its practice in the 1990s, but a catalogue of failures in the 21st century. Why has the wisdom gleaned from the...
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“It’s the economy (and social development) stupid”:the need for a new...
There is a pressing need to start telling a different story in Afghanistan – one which focuses on the civilian, rather than the military campaign, and one which highlights the good work undertaken by...
View ArticleEditing Afghanistan: An increasingly dissonant message
In response to the ever-increasing groundswell of voices in the media questioning the continuing wisdom behind the British role in Afghanistan, General Sir Richard Dannatt said on the BBC flagship Nine...
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Hard of Hearing: The UK Media and Afghanistan
The media space as a theatre of strategic communications over Afghanistan has been losing its efficacy. Sending the right message from Afghanistan – one which will be heard by an increasingly...
View ArticleAfghanistan: “Build it and they will come?”
Of the main outcomes to emerge from the London Conference, helping reintegrate Taliban fighters via support for a Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund and negotiations with the Taliban have taken centre...
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Military Intervention and Democracy: A Tenuous Relationship?
Can democracy be successfully imposed through force? This perennial question has been long discussed in academia, foreign policy insitutes and within governments. Often overlooked is the fact that the...
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