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Joshua Foust

Joshua Foust

Joshua Foust is a fellow at the American Security Project and the author of Afghanistan Journal: Selections from Registan.net. He is also a member of the Young Atlanticist Working Group. More

Joshua's research focuses on the role of market-oriented development strategies in post-conflict environments, and on the development of metrics in understanding national security policy. He has written on strategic design for humanitarian interventions, decision-making in counterinsurgency, and the intelligence community's place in the national security discussion. Previous to joining ASP, Joshua worked for the U.S. intelligence community, where he focused on studying the non-militant socio-cultural environment in Afghanistan at the U.S. Army Human Terrain System, then the socio-cultural dynamics of irregular warfare movements at the National Ground Intelligence Center, and later on political violence in Yemen for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Joshua is a columnist for PBS Need to Know, and blogs about Central and South Asia at the influential blog Registan.net. A frequent commentator for American and global media, Joshua appears regularly on BBC World, Aljazeera, and international public radio. Joshua is also a regular contributor to Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor.


'Smart Defense': Should Europe's Militaries Specialize?

'Smart Defense': Should Europe's Militaries Specialize?

The NATO defense collective wants to do less with more by having member states develop military specialties, like workers on an assembly line.… More »

American Drones Will Not Save Yemen

American Drones Will Not Save Yemen

An attempted terrorist attack this week has been bookended by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. Do we know they're effective?… More »

How Strong Is al Qaeda Today, Really?

How Strong Is al Qaeda Today, Really?

A year after bin Laden's death, we still often talk about his group's successful or failure in somewhat exaggerated terms. The truth may in fact be somewhere in the middle.… More »

A Radically Different Way of Bringing U.S. Aid to Pakistan

A Radically Different Way of Bringing U.S. Aid to Pakistan

Traditional aid programs are struggling in the country. But a less conventional program with less conventional goals seems to show a better model.… More »

The Annals of Chicken Diplomacy

The Annals of Chicken Diplomacy

Uzbekistan is now paying its teachers and doctors in poultry, part of a long and bizarre trend of chicken diplomacy in the 20th and 21st centuries.… More »

Why We Should Focus on Economics in Afghanistan, Not on Fighting

Why We Should Focus on Economics in Afghanistan, Not on Fighting

Developing and stabilizing a war-torn nation is about more than just military operations.… More »

How Short-Term Thinking Makes the U.S. Worse at Fighting Wars

How Short-Term Thinking Makes the U.S. Worse at Fighting Wars

From Vietnam to Afghanistan, 12-month deployments and institutional norms have made long-term planning more difficult.… More »

Going It Alone: Why Kyrgyzstan Doesn't Want Russian or American Bases

Going It Alone: Why Kyrgyzstan Doesn't Want Russian or American Bases

The Kyrgyz leader does not seem terribly interested in being Russia's proxy in Central Asia.… More »

Syria and the World's Troubling Inconsistency on Intervention

Syria and the World's Troubling Inconsistency on Intervention

Twice as many civilians die in Mexico's conflict, a reminder that we still haven't established a standard for who merits outside assistance and when.… More »

A Probably Fake 'Jihad' in Kyrgyzstan

A Probably Fake 'Jihad' in Kyrgyzstan

A new terrorist group threatens to destabilize a U.S. military installation in the central Asian republic.… More »

It's Time for the U.S. to Finally Make Economic Peace With Russia

It's Time for the U.S. to Finally Make Economic Peace With Russia

The country's ascent to the World Trade Organization is an opportunity to help U.S. businesses and continue ramping down tensions still leftover from the Cold War.… More »

Are the World's 'Lawless' Regions Really as Backward as We Think?

Are the World's 'Lawless' Regions Really as Backward as We Think?

Welcome to Zomia, the little-governed and misunderstood stretch from Afghanistan to Vietnam.… More »

Syria and the Pernicious Consequences of Our Libya Intervention

Syria and the Pernicious Consequences of Our Libya Intervention

Even if toppling Qaddafi made sense on its own terms, the Western campaign will make it far harder to do any good for Syria.… More »

The Political Consequences of a Drones-First Policy

The Political Consequences of a Drones-First Policy

Why we should start thinking more about politics, and less about killing bad guys… More »

More Than Just Drones: The Moral Dilemma of Covert Warfare

More Than Just Drones: The Moral Dilemma of Covert Warfare

It's easy and maybe right to decry their use, but drones are just a tool in larger effort.… More »

Is China Really Moving Into Central Asia?

Is China Really Moving Into Central Asia?

For all the fears of Chinese expansionism westward, the rising power doesn't actually seem to be doing all that much… More »

Inside Turkmenistan's Surreal Presidential Election

Inside Turkmenistan's Surreal Presidential Election

The only real question: By what margin will tyrant Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov rig the vote?… More »

Unaccountable Killing Machines: The True Cost of U.S. Drones

Unaccountable Killing Machines: The True Cost of U.S. Drones

Officials often portray the global expansion of deadly drone strikes as an unequivocal success. But are we really accounting for all the consequences?… More »

Seeing Revolution Everywhere: The 'Kazakhstan Spring' That Isn't

Seeing Revolution Everywhere: The 'Kazakhstan Spring' That Isn't

Why are outside analysts so ready to see a nascent Kazakh uprising that isn't really there?… More »

No Great Game: The Story of Post-Cold War Powers in Central Asia

No Great Game: The Story of Post-Cold War Powers in Central Asia

The U.S. has been increasingly active in these former Soviet satellites, but Russian influence is still a major force… More »

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