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The views and perspectives contained in these Blogs are from individual contributors and external sources, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or position of the Cordoba Peace Institute - Geneva. The links are neither intended as an endorsement of particular publications nor the only source for the updates, but to connect to information in the public domain, for those interested in background or further details.

Understanding, “right-sizing,” and adequately respecting the role of value systems in conflict transformation avoids both over- and under-emphasis. It aims at a better understanding of the interplay between tangible conflict issues and religious or secular value systems.

Originally published by the Center for Security Studies (ETHZ) in the CSS Policy Perspectives, Vol. 9/9, November 2021 (https://bit.ly/3N0oy7W).

By Abbas Aroua, Jean-Nicolas Bitter, Simon J. A. Mason

The Taliban's swift control of Afghanistan sent shockwaves worldwide. Numerous journalists warned from the beginning that the Taliban had not changed at all (1). Many feared the return of a similar style of government to 20 years ago...

By Ozair Khan

The Central Sahel region includes several hotspots of instability and violence that have been on the rise for at least five years, with mounting numbers of dead, wounded and displaced people as a result of or during military operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger...

Moktar Aoufa

In February 2020, an agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban was signed in Doha, Qatar, promising the complete withdrawal of American and NATO troops from Afghanistan in May 2021. This agreement was supposed to put an end to an endless war, having claimed the lives of nearly 46,000 Afghan civilians and more than 2,500 American soldiers (1). Indeed, this war, the longest ever waged by the United States, had never succeeded in entirely eliminating the forces of the Taliban regime, which throughout the conflict maintained a guerrilla state in the occupied country, despite the enormous means employed by the US Department of Defense. One thousand billion dollars will have been spent (2) and 775,000 American soldiers deployed during the 20 years of occupation (3), without ever succeeding in bringing peace to the country.

Kilian Bello

After years of conflict, Iraq has entered a phase of reconstruction and reconciliation. Although the Islamic State (IS) has been defeated, and territories reconquered, there are still numerous wounds to be healed before a lasting peace can be achieved. Indeed, the violence and the magnitude of the conflict has contributed to division within Iraqi society and increased the mistrust between the different communities.

Kilian Bello and Charlotte Mounier