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A number of years ago Rowman & Littlefield asked me to produce a new edition of the late Ludwig Adamec’s seminal Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan. 4 years later & 975 pages later the HD has finally been published. Please ask your libraries to purchase - it’s NOT cheap.

Urgent analysis about the impact of US aid cuts around the world, from Crisis Group's Chris Newton and Delaney crisisgroup.org/united-states/…

🚨New piece from Delaney Jerome Drevon & me on UN sanctions on HTS We breakdown the procedure & politics around the sanctions, arguing that the UNSC should move immediately to expand humanitarian exemptions & consider starting the delisting process crisisgroup.org/middle-east-no…

Aid cuts are hurting Afghans: "In the past month, more than 200 health facilities have closed, impacting some 1.8 million people." unama.unmissions.org/transcript-bri…

A Nowroz (Afghan New Year day 1404) surprise #Kabul visit. While awaiting news /commentary from the U.S. side as well, this exploratory/purposeful meeting taking place in Kabul between an American team led by Adam Boehler Adam Boehler U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs &

M. Assem Mayar looks into how climate-induced shocks ripple across #Afghanistan’s interconnect economy, deepening social vulnerabilities like rural poverty. #ClimateChange #ClimateJustice bit.ly/4iSWNOB

Are the relations between the Taliban and the U.S. tactical or strategic? With the insights of Omar Samad Faiz Zaland, PhD Graeme Smith bbc.com/persian/articl…

Nobody was paying attention, but Trump did something clever: a hostage deal with the Taliban. As I told The Telegraph, this is "more face-to-face engagement with leaders inside of Afghanistan in recent days than US diplomats have had in years." telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…

"The unresolved legacies of a war that promised stability and left only instability weigh most heavily on those who remain." Another great piece by FazelminallahQazizai newlinesmag.com/spotlight/the-…

5 quotations by Mahatma Gandhi that all aid workers should currently consider: "Whatever you do for me, but without me, you do against me." "Service without humility is selfishness and egotism." "If you want to change the world, start with yourself." (1/2)

The Trump administration has terminated more than 5,300 grants & contracts managed by USAID worth over $27 billion, according to a document obtained by POLITICO The document also shows that nearly 900 programs worth about $8.3 billion have been retained politico.com/news/2025/03/2…

When a currency crunch led to falling imports of car parts from China, Iranian automakers stumbled upon an unexpected solution. They started trading nuts for bolts. I unpack the latest example of the (sometimes wacky) ways Iran adapts to sanctions: bourseandbazaar.org/articles/2025/…

“The Taliban are saying, ‘bring it on.’ They don’t want Pakistan to have leverage over them,” says Graeme Smith. But the returnees were “walking into a real humanitarian disaster and an economy that cannot grow fast enough” | on.ft.com/3FJBEZ7 via Humza Jilani

The war on terrorism has jumped the shark

"A deeply restrictive government is in power and while Afghans very definitely do not need foreigners to tell them how to live, or lay out solutions for them, they do need a world that is engaged with them." The great Kathy Gannon offers some wisdom. kathygannon.substack.com/p/zalmay-zhali…

Billions of dollars are stuck in forgotten accounts as part of the legacy from Libya's civil war. New report by @DelaneySimon and Claudia Gazzini for Crisis Group

Not to miss MONDAY 5/19 12PM What We Chose Not to See: Adam N Weinstein Quincy Institute talks w/ Pulitzer Prize Winner Matthieu Aikins about how US created own conditions for failure in Afghanistan War. LINK below:

Sanctions relief for Syria: “Trump will need to work hard to follow through on his promise, but he should pull every lever in Washington to make it happen.” foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/02/tru…

I wrote about the Biden administration's efforts to sanction Israeli settlers for The Century Foundation. The program had some real successes, but in other ways, it backfired. 🧵1/5 tcf.org/content/commen…

zenml.io/blog/llmops-in… here's the link to the blog with all the LLMOps case study summaries