Recently in General Category

By now Bruce Riedel is pretty well-known, so I’ll spare you the CV: intimately involved in US foreign affairs in this general area (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Central Asia etc) he helped run one of the reviews of Afghan policy that......more

As you should be able to make out from the photo, Kindle has come to Kandahar.  I imagine there are are fair few being used by foreign military forces members at the PRT inside town and on KAF, the big......more

Went out to Daman district (Kandahar still) yesterday evening for a walk in the countryside. Shoran Dam is an area that has almost total sympathy with the Taliban, so we didn't stay too long, but long enough to enjoy......more

Went out of town this afternoon to get some grapes. Not that you can't buy them in town, but actually driving 45 minutes into the districts to pick them yourself is always more fulfilling (and more interesting). So we......more

The savagery of medieval warfare is widely acknowledged and understood; yet the idea of chivalry as an important and influential force in the conflicts of the Middle Ages somehow lives on in seemingly comfortable juxtaposition with this awareness. In By......more

Flying back to Kabul tomorrow and then on to Kandahar later in the week. Photo above is of the kit I'm taking with me (minus clothes and my aging Sony Vaio FS750P/W). Am looking forward to seeing how my......more

This link will take you to an MP3 of my interview yesterday with Chris Vallance on my way home from the airport. Light listening.......more

Have decided to cancel my second trip to Somalia as the situation there has become too difficult to work. About 3 days ago the senior Shabab spokesman said that their group would start specifically targetting foreigners (i.e. white guys, not......more

"Every individual Somali fights to stay himself, a person." (Gerard Hanley in 'Warriors') The atmosphere can change in a matter of seconds while working in Somalia.Today we were traveling with a militia south of Mogadishu in part so that......more

Usually when traveling and working abroad I like to be reading about something completely off-topic. For this trip I brought with me Dick Davis' translation/reworking of Abu al-Qasim Ferdowsi's 10th century Persian epic, the Shahnameh or Book of Kings.I......more