President's Corner

With Ghani as the reelected president, and Abdullah as the lead negotiator—as well as lead decision-maker—on any deal with the Taliban, Afghanistan would be resolving a serious impasse that if allowed to fester could sink the entire mission for which Afghans, Americans, and many others have sacrificed so much for so long.

Having led all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2011-13, Brookings President John R. Allen writes that he has his own perspective on this agreement, which is grounded in practical, lived experience.

The first part of a deal that could eventually bring peace to Afghanistan, and troops home to America, may be close. A second phase of a peace accord will be essential, and experts outline what good and bad elements of such a deal would look like.

As commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, I fought America’s enemies abroad. Now we must fight violent, hateful ideologies at home.

The decision by the New York Times to feature a piece by Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy leader of the Taliban and avowed enemy of the United States, is nothing short of reprehensible. This individual is a cold-blooded killer and terrorist, with the deaths of thousands of Afghans and the blood of hundreds of American and Coalition.

General Allen underscores the importance of American leadership in the face of an international health catastrophe and shares his firsthand experience in helping to organize past relief efforts with the DoD — to include the tsunami relief effort across Southeast Asia in 2004, and the subsequent bird flu in 2005. He demonstrates that as American leaders have successfully done in years past, President Trump and President Xi must join together and act quickly in order to save lives.

Brookings President John Allen on why autocrats are rising and what to do about it.

Brookings President John R. Allen describes how his time in the military allowed him to see firsthand how the barriers of racial discrimination can be brought down within institutions, and how he hopes to see the same change across the United States.

In a chapter from the 2020 World Economic Forum special report, “Shaping a Multiconceptual World”, John R. Allen argues that a “combination of economic and technological shifts” is reshaping the post-World War II international order in which U.S. leadership played a dominant role.

In testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence & Counterterrorism, Brookings President Gen. John R. Allen, USMC, Ret., testified on confronting the rise in anti-Semitic domestic terrorism.