In Discussion: Ali Maisam Nazary, National Resistance Front of Afghanistan

Ali Maisam Nazary is the Head of Foreign Relations of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), assuming the position after the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 2021. The NRF, also known as the Second Resistance, is a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters loyal to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Before assuming this position, Mr Nazary worked as a liaison between various resistance groups and international organizations, facilitating aid and support to those fighting against the Taliban.

Rethinking urban resistance as sites for rebuilding differential solidarities

Citizens' movements resisting an authoritarian, unjust and high-handed states have faced immense coercion and police violence across the globe. State narratives of these protests term them as 'dissenting', 'anti-national' and 'anti-people'. Most protests fizzle away due to policing, surveillance, and state-action or fall into than the trap of 'state-media constructed narratives' posing one community against the other. In such times how can scholars, citizen-activists, and people start a process of negation of such allegations through a process of initiation of re-building solidarity.

OPHI IIEP GWU Seminar Series: Global MPI

This year’s report Unstacking global poverty: Data for high-impact action, produced in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report Office (UNDP HDRO), presents a compact update on the state of the world’s multidimensional poverty. It compiles data across 110 developing countries covering 6.1 billion people and accounting for 92% of the population in developing countries.

‘Sustainability transition for all and for good? The European Green Deal and the European Commission’s narrative power’

The European Green Deal has paved the way to a ground-breaking EU agenda for climate neutrality and just transition, while at the same time triggering an extensive debate about how feasible, solid and coherent the new policy strategy is, and which factors are crucial for the whole legislative dossier to pass through the decision-making process successfully. The presented research investigates the European Commission’s role and leadership style in this process by conducting an in-depth analysis of the Commission’s political narrative and the power dimension therein.

Assessing the Bear: Overestimating the Russian Military

Prior to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, analysts predicted a quick and decisive victory for Russia over Ukraine due the Russian military benefiting from a long and sustained modernization program. It soon became clear that analysts' projections of a quick and decisive victory for Russia were shockingly incorrect. Why was the perception of the Russian military so divergent from its performance in the Ukraine war and why were assessments of the Russian military apparently so inaccurate?

Fashions and Fallacies in Contemporary Strategic Thought 

Every few years a new concept captures the attention of a large part of the strategic studies community. These buzzwords – such as hybrid warfare, grey zone conflict, counterinsurgency or the revolution in military affairs – are both ambiguous and powerful, sparking a wave of publications only to eventually be superseded by the next buzzword. How can we explain this recurring cycle? This talk looks at the dynamics and underlying ideas about war driving this process. It argues that these buzzwords are the outcome of fallacies inherent in much current strategic thinking in the West.
Subscribe to