Abubakar Siddique, a journalist for RFE/RL's Radio Azadi, specializes in the coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is the author of The Pashtun Question: The Unresolved Key To The Future Of Pakistan And Afghanistan.
Northern Afghanistan, for years seen as a bedrock of stability amid the chaos of war, is being pushed further into turmoil with every kill and every capture.
Recent security failures have exposed cracks in the facade of Pakistan's powerful military as it struggles to contain criticism of its professionalism and huge economic clout.
The killing of Pakistani journalist Sayed Saleem Shahzad has enraged the media in Pakistan, who are suspiciously pointing their fingers at the country's intelligence services. RFE/RL looks at Saleem Shahzad's life and work, which apparently earned him deadly enemies.
The fate of former Taliban members who recently signed on to the Afghan government's integration efforts is being closely watched by others considering defection.
Pakistan was already at a political crossroads in the fight against terrorism. With Osama bin Laden's death on its soil, the question now is whether the country's leadership can redefine its role in the struggle against extremists or be subjected to mounting international skepticism over its perceived double-dealing.
The fact that Osama bin Laden was killed in a major Pakistani city, in a villa near an elite military training academy, has put Islamabad on the spot while raising questions about Pakistan's role in the struggle against extremism.
After being accused of fabrications and financial misconduct, "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson finds support in unlikely quarters.
Despite a gradual change of heart in the West toward backing government efforts to talk with the Taliban, negotiations are still far from a reality as each side questions the other's motives.
There is no definite word about whether Islamabad and Washington have bridged key differences during a meeting between the leaders of the two countries' intelligence services in Washington, as disagreement between the spy services has become increasingly public.
The media in Pakistan are ostensibly free and thriving under a civilian government, but while the number of outlets may have grown, the scope of coverage has not.
Afghan human rights campaigners have called for an in-depth investigation into alleged "kill teams" following news of a 24-year sentence in the United States against a U.S. soldier for conspiring to kill unarmed Afghans.
President Hamid Karzai has announced seven areas in which Afghan forces will take over security duties, the first step toward a NATO-backed goal of having Afghan police and soldiers take control of security throughout the country by 2014.
The popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East have sparked a debate among clerics about Islam's compatibility with democracy. RFE/RL looks at how the outcome will help shape the region's future.
Shahbaz Bhatti, the assassinated minority-affairs minister in Pakistan, struggled for decades to promote interfaith harmony in the predominantly Muslim country. His loss is a major setback for the country's marginalized minorities and liberals alike who struggle for a more tolerant and pluralistic society.
In a rare positive sign, a localized sectarian conflict in Pakistan's western tribal areas has ended in a peace agreement. Could sustained peace in the Kurram region -- historically a place where Shi'ite and Sunni Pashtuns lived in harmony -- serve as a model for the region as a whole?
If reform can come to Tunisia and Egypt, then why not in the country that lies between them, Libya? The answer could lie in the complex tribal dynamics that make civil war a more likely possibility for this North African state.
A day ahead of a key court hearing in the case of an American held for killing two Pakistanis, a senior U.S. senator is trying to calm the dispute that has strained ties between the two allies.
To stop the nascent protest movements in the Middle East from being hijacked by Al-Qaeda fringe groups, the West must engage in fresh thinking and work on a long-term future vision for the region instead of merely engaging in endless crisis management.
A new study by two European researchers argues that reaching a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war is becoming increasingly difficult, a problem it argues is partly due to the mistaken assumption that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda are a united terrorist syndicate.
Although NATO and the Afghan government are credited with driving the Taliban out of key rural strongholds in Kandahar Province, their slowness in delivering on promised reconstruction and stability threatens the future of the joint effort to establish stability in southern Afghanistan.
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