Christine Fair

Assistant professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University Christine Fair discusses the reported trillion dollar mineral deposits in Afghanistan and the economics and politics of mining those resources.

Recent reports from Afghanistan indicate that the country is at an economic and political turning point. The New York Times reports that $1 trillion in mineral resources lies beneath the surface of Afghanistan. The mineral wealth is so vast that it may drastically change Afghanistan's economy and alter the course of the war. 

To illuminate what all of this wealth means for Afghanistan and the U.S., we turn to Christine Fair, political scientist with Georgetown University, and a former political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul. We also speak with lithium market expert Robert Baylis and Afghanistan's Minister of Mines, Ibrahim Adel.

 

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence forces, working together, have captured a leading Taliban figure. The apprehension of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may cause a significant disruption to Taliban operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and raises questions of whether ties are warming between Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, and the CIA. Baradar is reportedly being interrogated by both American and Pakistani operatives. Georgetown Prof. Christine Fair, who focuses on Pakistan and Afghanistan, joins us for analysis.

Earlier this week we made a comparison between the Vietnam War and the current U.S. war in Afghanistan. One of our listeners responded with a rebuttal. Jonaid Sharif said we were "co...

After weeks of international pressure, Afghanistan announced that it will now hold a run-off presidential election. But the November 7 date gives the country less than three weeks t...

A message from the Taliban is being heard almost everywhere across Afghanistan. It's from a militant denouncing the evils of the Afghan government and its corrupt officials. The messa...

Preliminary tallies in the second-ever Afghan presidential election show incumbent President Hamid Karzai leading in the polls with 55% of the votes. But the cloud of suspicions about...

A raid by commandoes in Afghanistan has freed captured New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. As is standard practice, the Times did not announce that the reporter had been kidnappe...

Today, preliminary results come in from last week's hotly-contested presidential election in Afghanistan. Both leading candidates, current President Hamid Karzai and leading challenge...

With Pakistan’s public education in shambles, many families struggle to find decent schools for their children. One option is the local madrassa, or religious school. Some Westerners ...

The LA Times reported this week that the U.S. and Pakistan are beginning a new joint operation that allows Pakistan to get substantial control over U.S. drone targets, flight routes, ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari have plans to visit Washington this week to engage in some tri-party talks about the region. And with the Taliba...

In an attempt to quell the fighting with Taliban militants, the government in Pakistan's embattled Swat Valley has agreed to allow the extremely conservative Sharia religious law to b...

Christine Fair, Senior Political Scientist with the Rand Corporation, talks about the future of US-Pakistan relations.