Afghanistan Regional Forum No. 2, November 2012
By Stephen Blank
Washington’s announcement that U.S. forces in Afghanistan will desist from combat missions in 2013, leaving the burden of those operations to U.S. special and elite forces and to trained Afghan forces, has caused great turbulence in NATO and throughout Central Asia. As earlier announcements of the U.S. intention to withdraw combat forces after 2014 caused consternation throughout the region, any further shortening of the time frame for U.S. combat operations will likely have an even greater result. Central Asian governments continue to warn that their security problems will grow in the wake of the U.S. and NATO withdrawal. Yet these governments, along with Russia, Iran, China, and Pakistan, also oppose any long-term U.S. strategic presence in Afghanistan or Kyrgyzstan at the base at Manas.
