Afghanistan: The “Faustian Pact”

At Democracy Digest, Michael Allen covers a recent Brookings Institution event featuring Steve Coll, Vali Nasr, and Michael O’Hanlon, exploring the effectiveness of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. According to Coll, NATO has made a “Faustian Pact” with local warlords by sacrificing the long term development of civil society for short term security gains. Coll also expressed concern that too much emphasis is being paid to centralization at the cost of local governance. O’ Hanlon noted that the Afghan people are generally supportive of the central government, while Nasr emphasized the importance of Pakistan in any calculations of the region.