Joshua Foust
Joshua Foust is a military intelligence analyst who specializes in the socio-cultural dynamics of irregular warfare. He has worked on open-source analysis programs for the Defense Intelligence Agency, and was an analyst for the Afghanistan cell of the U.S. Army Human Terrain System (HTS). While at HTS, he specialized in using academic and social media platforms to provide an alternate framework for the Army intelligence process. More recently, he has focused on how commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies are used and exploited in insurgency and resistance movements. He is also the Afghanistan editor at
Global Voices Online, and blogs about Central and South Asia at
Registan.net. Joshua is a regular contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review, where he criticizes the press coverage of conflict zones, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Reuters, and the Christian Science Monitor.
Articles written by Joshua Foust
By Joshua Foust, Paul Meinshausen
28 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
As Gen. David Petraeus takes over the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan, he is right to continue a strategy of counterinsurgency and to strengthen it with a plan that seeks to give local Afghan communities the means to defend themselves. However, both the recently announced local defense plan and the over-arching counterinsurgency of which it is a part take the wrong path to reducing violence in Afghanistan.
By Joshua Foust
01 Mar 2010 |
World Politics Review
The success of Operation Moshtarak, NATO's military offensive to seize
the Taliban-controlled town of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province,
will be determined by how well coalition forces establish a functioning
government now that the bulk of the actual fighting is over. NATO's plan, which it calls "government-in-a-box," should include a stable tax regime as an essential foundation for governance.
By Joshua Foust
08 Sep 2009 |
World Politics Review
What does it mean to "secure the people" of Afghanistan? Some of the
U.S. government's best thinkers about defense policy and
counterinsurgency have finally begun to consider this question. But
although Iraq is vastly different from Afghanistan, there seems to be
no end to "importing" lessons from Baghdad to Kabul: tribal militias,
awakenings, and, most worryingly, a focus on cities.
By Joshua Foust
18 Aug 2009 |
WPR Blog
We can view the coverage of the Russo-Georgian Conflict as a situation in which
traditional journalism has been crowded out by opinion journalism.
By Joshua Foust
18 Aug 2009 |
WPR Blog
Democratic elections usually rest on a few basic principles: a free and
fair vote, an uncoerced selection of candidates, and an agreement by
all parties to abide by the results. Afghanistan doesn't quite qualify
for any of these.
By Joshua Foust
17 Jul 2009 |
World Politics Review
The cliché that you must "protect the population" in order to win a
counterinsurgency has now become entrenched in conventional wisdom. This is especially so of the war in Afghanistan, where civilian casualties have become a deeply polarizing issue. But protecting the population requires knowing where it lives. Here, the Army's conventional wisdom fails.
By Joshua Foust
31 Mar 2009 |
World Politics Review
Since 2005, Kapisa Province has been the site of several waves of U.S. counterinsurgency operations. Each has been lauded as a success, yet the problems facing Kapisa remain, and in some cases are worse than before the operations began. Clearly, something needs fixing in the way the U.S. military measures and maintains its successes.
By Joshua Foust
23 Mar 2009 |
World Politics Review
KHOST PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Khost Province is one of the only places in Afghanistan where
there are strong enough tribal identities for recently announced
tribal militias, called Arbakai, to actually work. The one limitation to Arbakai, however, is that to use them effectively, you must understand the ground conditions. That's something the restrictions on movement in Khost Province make extremely difficult.
By Joshua Foust
09 Mar 2009 |
World Politics Review
KAPISA PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- Over scalding cups of tea, an elder said to me, "For two
years you have come here and asked me the same questions. I like you, I
like the French, but you people never learn." This elder was not hostile to America's goals in Afghanistan. Like others, he was just deeply
frustrated by the way, for all our questions, we never seem to learn
from our experiences.
By Joshua Foust
22 Dec 2008 |
World Politics Review
To discuss human rights in Central Asia without resorting to
stereotype is a difficult prospect. The area's strategic value is
unquestioned and has led some to turn the region's human rights record into a vehicle for promoting their own interests -- distorting
reality in the process. What's more, the human rights picture varies significantly from country to country across Central Asia.
By Joshua Foust
18 Apr 2007 |
World Politics Review Exclusive
There are many encouraging signs
that Turkmenistan's new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, will open his country to the outside
world. Already, Berdymukhammedov has reversed some of the more puzzling
of former dictator Niyazov's zany policies. This change of leadership represents a huge opportunity, of which the
United States should take advantage. Offering fully
normalized trade and diplomatic relations would open a remarkable
possibility: reducing Russian dominance of South Caspian energy.