For three decades now, Communism, civil war and Islamic fundamentalism have laid siege to Afghanistan’s tribes. In many ways, Afghanistan’s tribal structure is arguably the weakest it has been ...

Review Why Afghanistan’s Tribes Beat the United States Tightly bound kinship networks aren’t vestiges of the past. They’re a modern—and effective—form of political organization.

If U.S. commanders do turn to Afghanistan’s tribes-a similar strategy is already being employed by Pakistan in that country’s tribal regions-it would amount to a significant reversal for ...

WASHINGTON -- While military officers wait for President Barack Obama to conclude his agonizingly slow review of Afghanistan policy, they've been reading a paper by an Army Special Forces ...

Afghan and U.S. officials are encouraged by a recent deal in eastern Afghanistan under which a major tribe has agreed to keep the Taliban out of their territory in return for aid. But while the ...

Six weeks ago, elders of the Shinwari tribe, which dominates a large area in southeastern Afghanistan, pledged that they would set aside internal differences to focus on fighting the Taliban. This ...

Afghanistan was saved by a 2009-2012 troop surge, which tripled the number of troops in the country, conveyed a message of strength to the tribes, and saved the south and east from a Taliban conquest.

A number of experts now say the U.S. should abandon its “top down” strategy of building an Afghan national army. Better is a "bottom up" approach that arms and pays local tribes to fight the ...

Conflicts among Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan mostly simmer because of weak or non-existent rule of law and state control. In Paktia, the fledgling provincial administration invokes ...

Afghanistan is a mess. It is populated by a multitude of ethnic groups, the dominant ones being Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara and Turkic. Many of these groups are further subdivided into traditional ...