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Articles by Barnett R. Rubin
Establish a way for Americans, especially Jews, to support the Joint List
OPINION ARTICLE The following piece was first published by Barnett R. Rubin as part of his regular column, Appointed Times, on Substack, where you can subscribe directly. I apologize to my subscribers and followers for my lengthy silence. I have become a co-author of a book on the failure of attempts to find a political settlement in Afghanistan, and I have been working on it constantly. Starting in January 2027 I will be working on it at the American Academy of Berlin for four months.
Appointed Times
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Another Gaza coverup from the NYT
Front page upper right in NYT today: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-military-evacuation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare First to fourth paragraph: Let me rewrite the third paragraph: The episode was the latest in a pattern of indiscriminate attacks on civilians in which Israeli troops massacred Gazans as they gathered to get food. Israel has been starving Gazans as a war tactic, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Portrait of a Foreign Policy Failure
The Trump administration has yet to announce a policy on Afghanistan. For that, at least, we must be thankful. There is no basis on which to offer any recommendations: that would require shared goals and values, which do not seem to exist. Perhaps it might be possible—eventually, at least—to seek clarity on goals, lack of which was at the core of the United States’ past failure. The post–9/11 international operation in Afghanistan was based on a misunderstanding that generated incoherent policy.
Why Mahmoud Khalil Must Be Freed
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Appointed Times
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Rethinking Israel's Right to Exist
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The Worst Crime is Silence
Appointed Times Writings from Barnett Rubin on Israel/Palestine, Afghanistan, and more. The stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. No thanks
Will Masada Fall Again?
In a full-page opinion piece in today’s Sunday New York Times, Bret Stephens calls the year since October 7, 2023, “The Year American Jews Woke Up” to the inevitability of antisemitism.
Chinese Peacemaking Efforts in Afghanistan
A Report of the Stimson Center In this chapter of China and Conflict Mediation, Distinguished Fellow Barnett R. Rubin discusses China’s role in conflict mediation in Afghanistan and how China’s approach has evolved with its own changing status in the international sphere.
Chinese Peacemaking Efforts in Afghanistan
The China and Conflict Mediation series collects eight papers by senior experts on China’s evolving approach to conflict mediation around the world. Presenting case studies from four continents, each chapter examines the drivers, frameworks, and outcomes of China’s efforts to engage in conflict mediation.
Jonathan Glazer sobre Gaza y el Holocausto
¿Autodefensa judía o derechos universales? Política publicitaria Recogiendo los premios Oscar otorgados a su película El Zona de Interés, dijo Jonathan Glazer, refiriéndose a los colegas que se unieron a él en el escenario: “Estamos aquí como hombres que refutan su judaísmo y el Holocausto secuestrado por una ocupación, que ha llevado al conflicto a tantas personas inocentes.
On Gaza and the Holocaust
Thank you for reading The Nation! We hope you enjoyed the story you just read. It takes a dedicated team to publish timely, deeply researched pieces like this one. For over 150 years, The Nation has stood for truth, justice, and democracy. Today, in a time of media austerity, articles like the one you just read are vital ways to speak truth to power and cover issues that are often overlooked by the mainstream media.
La rédemption par le génocide (Mondoweiss)
Génocide CIJ Gaza Israël Colonialisme Sionisme Crimes contre l'humanité Palestine Extrême droite Articles de Sam La Touch La rédemption par le génocide Article originel : Redemption through genocide Par Barnett R. Rubin* Mondoweiss.net, 2.03.24 La CIJ a jugé que la campagne d’Israël à Gaza constitue une menace plausible et urgente de génocide.
Redemption through genocide
On February 24, Yaakov Godu, an anti-government demonstrator in Haifa, Israel, whose son Tom was killed by Hamas in Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, told a reporter from Haaretz that members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are “deranged messianic envoys.” This is the government that President Biden treats as a friend and ally with whom the U.S. has a few differences.
TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE
Barnett R. Rubin | Boston Review – TRANSCEND Media Service How Zionism’s dreams of liberation became entangled with colonialism. 4 Jan 2024 – The picture above of two teenage Zionists was taken in 1906 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine, in what was then the Russian empire. On the right is my wife’s, Susan Blum’s, paternal grandmother, Rose Resnick.
False Messiahs - Boston Review
The picture above of two teenage Zionists was taken in 1906 in Kamenetz-Podolsk, Ukraine, in what was then the Russian empire. On the right is my wife’s, Susan Blum’s, paternal grandmother, Rose Resnick. On the left is a friend, name unknown, holding a Yiddish publication entitled Der Nayer Veg, or the New Way—the organ of the central committee of the Zionist Socialist Workers Party, founded in Odesa in 1905.
14 months later: Five conclusions on Afghanistan withdrawal
The Taliban is still in charge and seeking international recognition. So is there any realistic way for the US to help move things forward? By Barnett R. Rubin More than a year after the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and left Afghanistan to the Taliban, no government has recognized the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, but no government is supporting a proxy war against it either.
14 months later: Five conclusions on Afghanistan withdrawal
More than a year after the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and left Afghanistan to the Taliban, no government has recognized the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate, but no government is supporting a proxy war against it either. Such a war would create a power vacuum that could provide opportunities for both the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) and the U.S., the two entities that the most powerful neighboring countries consider preeminent threats.
Afghanistan Under the Taliban: Findings on the Current Situation
“Males are educated from the first to the twelfth grade, and the girls also attend schools up to the sixth grade, but from the seventh to the twelfth grade, the schools are stopped, and it is not stopped because we do not want education, we are preparing their principles, curriculum, educational places, and transportation, to make sure that people mentally allow their daughters to be educated, that their hijab is observed, that what they learn is valid, because our past curriculum was made by...
From Great Game to Grand Bargain
The Great Game is no fun anymore. The term "Great Game" was used by nineteenth-century British imperialists to describe the British-Russian struggle for position on the chessboard of Afghanistan and Central Asia -- a contest with a few players, mostly limited to intelligence forays and short wars fought on horseback with rifles, and with those living on the chessboard largely bystanders or victims. More than a century later, the game continues.
The Once and Future Defeat in Afghanistan
“Everyone is failing us.” These were the first words that Ashraf Ghani uttered — not as he fled the advancing Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, but in March 2002 as we sat down to dinner on a chilly and wet night on my first post-9/11 visit to Kabul. I had known him since 1984, first as an academic colleague and then as a World Bank official.
The Once and Future Defeat in Afghanistan
“Everyone is failing us.” These were the first words that Ashraf Ghani uttered — not as he fled the advancing Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021, but in March 2002 as we sat down to dinner on a chilly and wet night on my first post-9/11 visit to Kabul. I had known him since 1984, first as an academic colleague and then as a World Bank official.
Afghanistan is facing a vast humanitarian disaster - and not only at the airport - The Washington Post
Barnett R. Rubin, a former senior adviser to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the State Department, and a nonresident fellow of the Center for International Cooperation of New York University and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Media coverage of Afghanistan is understandably focused on the precarious situation of thousands of Americans and Afghans who are desperate to leave.
How to Bargain with the Taliban
President Joe Biden will soon have to decide whether to withdraw the remaining 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by May 1, as stipulated by the February 2020 Doha agreement. According to the agreement’s original timeline, the withdrawal was supposed to be completed after the Taliban and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan had negotiated for 14 months over a political road map for the country leading to a ceasefire.
Open Letter to the Afghan Taliban
Dear Taliban: A lot has changed in the three years that have passed since you published an Open Letter to the American People (on February 14, 2018) and I responded with my own to you (in the New Yorker, February 27, 2018). Two years almost to the day after my letter, on February 29, 2020, the U.S. and Taliban signed an “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan.” On the same day, the U.S. signed a joint declaration with the Afghan government pledging its commitment to peace and stability.
Biden can bring troops home from Afghanistan the right way – Responsible Statecraft
When President-Elect Biden enters the Oval Office, only 100 days will remain before May 1,, which last year’s Doha Agreement with the Taliban sets as the deadline for the United States to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.
There Is Only One Way Out of Afghanistan
Regional Support is Key to Unlocking the U.S Government’s Dilemma For more than a decade, every debate about U.S. policy in Afghanistan has focused narrowly on the number of troops to send or withdraw. U.S. policymakers freely admit there can be no military solution to Afghanistan’s problems. Yet they continue to debate the same false choice between disengagement and troop commitment for counterterrorism.
There Is Only One Way Out of Afghanistan
(AP Photo/Ahmad Seir Nassiri) The Biden administration should continue to draw down troops in accordance with the agreement the administration of President Donald Trump signed with the Taliban in February 2020—though it could seek to adjust the timeline, since implementation of parts of the agreement has been delayed. But it should draw down as part of a coordinated regional strategy that seeks to capitalize on areas of alignment between the United States and regional powers.
There Is Only One Way Out of Afghanistan
For more than a decade, every debate about U.S. policy in Afghanistan has focused narrowly on the number of troops to send or withdraw. U.S. policymakers freely admit there can be no military solution to Afghanistan’s problems. Yet they continue to debate the same false choice between disengagement and troop commitment for counterterrorism. The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden has a chance to move beyond this blinkered approach.
There is only one way out of Afghanistan
President Donald J. Trump visits troops at Bagram Airfield on Thursday, November 28, 2019, in Afghanistan, during a surprise visit to spend Thanksgiving with troops. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead) For more than a decade, every debate about U.S. policy in Afghanistan has focused narrowly on the number of troops to send or withdraw. U.S. policymakers freely admit there can be no military solution to Afghanistan’s problems.
Peace Talks in Afghanistan May Come Down to an Agreement Between the Taliban and Kabul on an Interim Government. Here’s How to Avoid the Pitfalls of 1992 and 2001.
Negotiations between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan have opened in Doha, Qatar, but violence continues and even appears to be escalating. Some of the worst attacks, such as the Oct. 24 strike on an educational center in Kabul that killed at least 30 students, have been claimed by the so-called Islamic State. That group rejects all negotiations as it pursues its global agenda.
A New Look at Iran’s Complicated Relationship with the Taliban
Eight years ago, I took part in a meeting among people from several different countries — Iran, various European countries, Afghanistan, Turkey, and the United States. I was a part-time consultant to the U.S. government at the time, and most of the group had been or — at least — were close to government officials. These are known as “track-two meetings.” During one of the sessions, a European participant charged Iran with supplying military aid to the Taliban.
COVID-19 has forced Afghan refugees in Iran to flee back to Afghanistan - Responsible Statecraft
Photo credit: mustafa olgun / Shutterstock.com The exodus of Afghan immigrants fleeing Iran in the recent weeks because of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Islamic Republic has largely gone off the radar of global media, but is actually a tragedy that has the potential of spawning broad, devastating consequences. Iran has been hosting between 3 and 4 million Afghans, of whom only 1 million are registered refugees with legal status and entitlement to government support.
Remembering Afghanistan amid the coronavirus pandemic - Responsible Statecraft
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo participates in a press conference with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul, Afghanistan on July 9, 2018. [State Department photo/ Public Domain] In Doha last month, the international community stepped up to its responsibility and finally made its contribution to the Afghan peace process.
Start the Negotiations, End the Afghan War Now
The two of us witnessed the signing of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Doha on Feb. 29. Since then, we have observed delay upon delay in implementation as the novel coronavirus pandemic outpaces armed conflict as a source of global death and destruction. Today, representatives of the Taliban were supposed to arrive at Bagram air base to monitor the release of up to 5,000 Taliban detainees as a confidence-building measure brokered by Qatar and the United States.
The new dangers of international enmity: How pandemics change the geopolitical calculus - Responsible Statecraft
Donald Trump signs an Executive Order reimposing sanctions on Iran that had been lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead) Those who fear and despise Iran have reason to be more afraid now than ever. For years, Tehran’s efforts to develop nuclear technology and field legions of loyal armed groups across the Middle East have fostered dread and rage among regional leaders and Washington officials.
Why the United States Can't Abandon Afghanistan Now
On March 23, after failing to broker an agreement between incumbent Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, both of whom claim the presidency after a disputed election, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the State Department was slashing Afghanistan aid by $1 billion, threatening to cut another $1 billion in 2021. “This leadership failure poses a direct threat to U.S. national interests,” Pompeo said in his statement that day.
Without international aid, the coronavirus crisis in Iran will spread throughout South Asia - Responsible Statecraft
New York, NY – September 24, 2019: Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan conducts press briefing during 74th General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters. Photo credit: lev radin / Shutterstock.com Saadi Shirazi, one of the prominent Iranian poets of the medieval period, once wrote, “Extending a hand in the hour of need is the mark of a true friend.” Iran is struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic and economic sanctions simultaneously, and all its friends are in trouble. Then who can help?
The Faustian pact at the heart of the coronavirus - Responsible Statecraft
Photo credit: IHOR SULYATYTSKYY / Shutterstock.com China appears to have won the first battle against the coronavirus after reporting its first day without new cases, thus providing a potential authoritarian blueprint for how to contain the spread. As the epicenter of the crisis moves to Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, a region beset by socio-political turmoil is not far behind.
An Ailing America Must Not Abandon Afghanistan (Op-ed)
On March 23, after failing to broker an agreement between incumbent Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, both of whom claim the presidency after a disputed election, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the State Department was slashing Afghanistan aid by $1 billion, threatening to cut another $1 billion in 2021. “This leadership failure poses a direct threat to U.S. national interests,” Pompeo charged in his statement that day.
Start The Negotiations, End The Afghan War Now
The two of us witnessed the signing of the agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Doha on Feb. 29. Since then, we have observed delay upon delay in implementation as the novel coronavirus pandemic outpaces armed conflict as a source of global death and destruction. Today, representatives of the Taliban were supposed to arrive at Bagram air base to monitor the release of up to 5,000 Taliban detainees as a confidence-building measure brokered by Qatar and the United States.
The coronavirus crisis should convince Washington to abandon ‘maximum pressure’ against North Korea - Responsible Statecraft
Photo credit: Yeongsik Im / Shutterstock.com Many people are rightfully outraged that the United States just imposed fresh sanctions on Iran during a global pandemic, as the U.S.-led sanctions regime is already causing ordinary Iranians to suffer, and the coronavirus crisis only puts them more at risk. But amidst demands to lift sanctions on Iran, it’s important to remember that another country is also at grave risk because of U.S. militarism and “maximum pressure”: North Korea.
The regional dimension of COVID-19's interaction with war and peace in Afghanistan - Responsible Statecraft
Photo credit: Gints Ivuskans / Shutterstock.com Diplomatic efforts are under way to coordinate a humanitarian response to COVID-19 in Afghanistan among the government, Taliban, and international actors. These efforts are also proposing ways to de-conflict the humanitarian response with the ongoing hostilities and peace process. These efforts address Afghanistan in a national context, but the country has largely open borders and mobile populations of both Afghans and foreigners.
Will the Trump administration block Iran's request for an emergency loan to combat COVID-19? - Responsible Statecraft
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and President Donald Trump (Photo credit: White House) For the first time in 60 years, Iran has requested a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), seeking emergency financing to support its efforts to combat COVID-19.
Iran needs sanctions relief - Responsible Statecraft
Billboard in Tehran offers advice on preventing disease spread. Photo credit: Farzad Frames / Shutterstock.com For those countries in the midst of the catastrophic coronavirus epidemic, the loss of lives will be measured not just by those afflicted by the disease but also those whose lives were (or became) entirely reliant on some form of social or governmental support that proved absent when needed most, particularly as the epidemic caused economic stress and eventual recession.
How to keep the coronavirus from hindering the peace process in Afghanistan - Responsible Statecraft
An Afghan health worker in protective gear checks the temperature of a woman before Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani inauguration as president, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan March 9, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail The coronavirus greatly complicates efforts to overcome the already significant obstacles to the implementation of the Afghan peace process foreseen in the U.S.-Taliban agreement signed in Doha on February 29.
We’re starting to end endless war in Afghanistan, now let’s do Iraq - Responsible Statecraft
Photo credit: Maria Oswalt / Shutterstock.com Pentagon officials were quick to blame Iran for the March 11 attack that killed three service members —two American and one British — and injured 14 others in Iraq’s Camp Taji military base, which has once again brought us to another round of confrontation with Iran.
Mohammed bin Salman's uncertain future amid a new oil war and COVID-19 - Responsible Statecraft
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (source: U.S. State Department) After a period of relative calm in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Jamal Khashoggi, for which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has resisted U.S. Congressional and international pressure to link him to the crime, MbS has been back in the news lately.
Coronavirus and the Afghan Peace Process (Op-ed)
The coronavirus greatly complicates efforts to overcome the already significant obstacles to the implementation of the Afghan peace process foreseen in the February 29 US-Taliban agreement. The prevalence of the virus in Afghanistan is unknown, given the weakness of healthcare and lack of testing. On March 10, the ministry of public health said that there 7 confirmed cases, 5 cases in Herat and 2 in Samangan plus 60 suspected cases.
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