Recent Developments in Pakistan’s Policy toward Afghanistan
[01 Jul 2008]   [ Sarah Soroui]
Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan in the past was based on the need to install a government friendly to its own interest. Yet, following the events of September 11th, elements of the Pakistani government have taken a varied stance on the issue of the Taliban and al-Qaeda networks that have established their sanctuaries in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas. Afghanistan has claimed that Pakistan’s fueling the insurgency in Afghanistan in order to destabilize the government and install a more compliant government in Kabul. Pakistan’s stance about harboring terrorists operating in its territory has also varied since the beginning of the “War on Terror”,

Datasets/Data-on-Armed-Conflict/Battle-
[13 Jun 2008]   [ Sarah Soroui]
“…deaths that occur in what can be described as "text1" warfare involving the armed forces of the warring parties. This includes traditional battlefield fighting, guerrilla activities (e.g. hit-and-run attacks / ambushes) and all kinds of bombardments of military units, cities and villages etc. The targets are usually the military itself and its installations or state institutions and state representatives, but there is often substantial collateral damage in the form of civilians being killed in crossfire, in indiscriminate bombings etc. All deaths - military as well as civilians - incurred in such situations, are counted as battle-related deaths

Threat of Fragile States to Global Security
[10 Jun 2008]   [ Sarah Soroui ]
The Global Political Risk Consulting group has identified several reasons as to why such problems emerge in fragile states. They include porous borders, weak law enforcement and security services, and the influence that terrorist organizations can exert over these fragile states by exploiting local resources to fund their operations, and by recruiting forces from local population. These states lack the capacity to detect and investigate terrorist activity in addition to provide counter terrorist activity.