Afghanistan, Pakistan and Global Security: Paul Rogers of Open Democracy will be guest on Friday's Wake Up Call

Hello folks,

This is just to call your attention to one of the issues we'll be discussing this Friday on Wake Up Call on WBAI Radio 99.5FM (www.wbai.org), for February 27th. At about 6:30am ET, we'll be having an interview with Dr. Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Bradford University, in northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy. We will discuss Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and the global economic crisis and its potential impact on security. Take a look at his latest commentary:

The "AfPak" war: Washington’s three options

Paul Rogers

The United States's strategic predicament in Afghanistan and Pakistan is deepening. What will Barack Obama do?

(This article was first published on 23 February 2009 in Open Democracy)

23 - 02 - 2009

The United States decision in the closing months of 2008 to send an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan was largely in response to an escalation in Taliban activity that has now lasted through the current winter. Those troops, from the 10th Mountain Division that has repeatedly been deployed in Afghanistan since the start of the war in October 2001, are now installed in Logar and Wardak provinces south of Kabul (see "Afghanistan's critical moment", 6 February 2009). President Barack Obama announced on 17 February 2009 that he is deploying 17,000 more US soldiers, many of whom will attempt to limit the free exchange of paramilitaries between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Paul Rogers is professor of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001

In the past two weeks there has been a much greater media focus in the United States on the deterioration in security in Afghanistan, much of it prompted by the decision to send the extra troops. This has even made headlines across the domestic news-channels, occasionally even displacing the dominant concern with the economy; but this rare focus on an international story is accompanied by commentary that tends to underplay impact of more troops on the wider strategic environment. Indeed, one result of the Republican efforts to define a narrative of victory in Iraq around the effects of the 2007-08 "surge" has been an assumption that what "worked" there will have a similar effect in Afghanistan.

For the full report, go to Open Democracy.

And make sure to tune into Wake Up Call on WBAI Radio 99.5FM (www.wbai.org) on Friday, February 27th at 6:30am ET for an interview with Dr. Paul Rogers. We will discuss Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and the global economic crisis and its potential impact on security.