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.

Tribes have existed for millennia in the area that is present-day Afghanistan. They emerged over centuries in various sections of the country, taking form along extended kinship lines.

More on: Democracy. Afghanistan. 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 ...

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 ...

David Ignatius: The jumble of ad hoc ideas for Afghanistan isn't necessarily a bad thing: Similar experimentation in Iraq helped produce the unlikely network that finally began to improve security ...

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 ...

Tribes, Corruption Ail Afghanistan. ROBERT L. MOORE. Afghanistan is a mess. It is populated by a multitude of ethnic groups, the dominant ones being Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara and Turkic.

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.

GARDEZ, Afghanistan -- Abid has found an unlikely combat role in a country where most such jobs are taken up by the Afghan security forces and the Taliban as fighting between the two sides continues.

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 ...