Afghans Look at 2014

While many Afghans are highly ambivalent about the presence of foreign forces in their country, they fear a return to civil war even more. Afghanistan's future looks ever more unpredictable as international forces move toward a planned drawdown in 2014. Many security and foreign policy analysts in Afghanistan and abroad fear a return of civil war and international isolation. Three questions now dominate international attention: are the Taliban likely to retake power after international forces withdraw? will President Hamid Karzai's government and armed forces be able to retain power? and what role will Afghanistan's neighbors - esp. Pakistan, India and Iran - play in the country's future?