The Guardian newspaper carried a quote by Sameer Patil, Associate Fellow, National Security, Ethnic Conflict & Terrorism studies, Gateway House analysing the importance of successful elections in Afghanistan and its impact on the Taliban

Gateway House recently co-hosted the premiere show of the documentary ‘Frontier Gandhi’ in Mumbai. But do the ideals of non-violence have any active adherents in Afghanistan today? A search reveals a remarkable variety of passionate action in the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Badshah Khan

This daily column includes Gateway House’s Badi Soch – big thought – of the day’s foreign policy events. Today’s focus is on the recent terror attack near the Indian Consulate General building in Jalalabad

The withdrawal of NATO troops in 2014 and the Presidential elections in Afghanistan continue to spark interest the world over. Gateway House interviews Fawzia Koofi, a Presidential candidate in Afghanistan who provides an overview of the upcoming elections and the changing dynamics in the country.

An important take-away from the preliminary pact reached by Kabul and Washington is that unlike the 1990s, the Americans are not just packing their bags and leaving. This is good news in terms of regional stability, and the upcoming NATO summit may answer some questions this draft agreement raises.

With the prospect of a new Taliban office in Qatar, who would go to the negotiating table from a position of strength, the Taliban or the Afghan government? And what do Afghans think of the contentious TAPI pipeline? Dr. Roashan gives us an Afghani perspective of the geopolitics surrounding the war-torn nation.

NATO’s poor strategy in Afghanistan has failed to quell the Taliban. Now, India will begin to train the Afghani military, and has proven with its light force tactics in Kashmir that it is better suited for the role than NATO forces.

Corruption has become a galling global phenomenon: structured, vertically-integrated networks, whose objective is the extraction of resources, are forming in countries around the globe. And strikingly, these structures are masquerading as democratically-elected, seemingly-open governments.

A change has come about after 9/11: the ideologies grouped as “Al Qaeda” has morphed, from a group directed by a few individuals, it is now disaggregated. Due to this change, NATO is empowering it's future foes in the Arab world by its continued belief in the camouflaged jihadis.

In 2001, fearing ethnic strife, the international community pushed for a strong central government in Kabul. But such fears fostered a system of regional and ethnic patronage. To correct matters, the U.S. should de-emphasize Afghanistan’s ethnic fault lines and push for more devolved and inclusive governance.