More than eight years after the UN authorized military action in Afghanistan, the 43-nation coalition intends to increase troop levels to provide fresh impetus to efforts to bring peace and stability to the country.
What is needed from Afghanistan, the region and the international community to achieve success?
Bio
Carl Bildt
Carl Bildt is the current foreign affairs minister of Sweden and was the country’s prime minister from 1992-1994. Minister Bildt’s political career began in 1979 when he was elected to the Swedish Parliament. He served as chair of the Moderate Party from 1986-1999, as well as the International Democrat Union from 1992-1999. His government negotiated and signed the 1995 accession of Sweden to the European Union and undertook far-reaching liberalization and structural reforms to improve the competitiveness of Sweden. Internationally, Minister Bildt has served as EU special envoy to former Yugoslavia, co-chair of the 1995 Bosnian Peace Talks at Dayton, high representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina immediately after the Bosnian War, and as the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for the Balkans. In the corporate sector, he has served on several boards, including Legg Mason, Vostok Nafta, Lundin Petroleum, and Teleopti AB.
Thomas L. Friedman
Thomas L. Friedman is a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist; the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes; and the author of five best-selling books: From Beirut to Jerusalem; The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization; Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11; The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century; and Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution – And How It Can Renew America. His foreign affairs column in the Times, which appears twice a week, reports on US domestic politics and foreign policy, Middle East conflict, international economics, environment, biodiversity, and energy.
Anwar Gargash
Anwar Muhammad Gargash (Qarqash) is a prominent businessman, scholar, and government official in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). He gained international attention when, as chairman of the National Elections Committee, he oversaw the first elections held in the U.A.E. in December 2006.
He is also the senior executive of one of the most important family business enterprises in the U.A.E., a respected academic, and an important figure on the cultural scene in Dubai.
Ashraf Ghani
Ashraf Ghani is chairman of the Institute for State Effectiveness, established in 2005 to promote the ability of states to serve their citizens. He is the former finance minister of Afghanistan and chancellor of Kabul University, and he served as a UN adviser to the process that led to the Bonn Agreement for Afghanistan in 2001.
He became chief adviser to Afghan President Karzai during the interim administration and then served as finance minister for the duration of the transitional administration. He is credited with the design of Afghanistan's integrated political, economic, and security strategy between 2001 and 2005. He is a member of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an initiative of the UN Development Program, and co-author of the forthcoming book The Framework: Fixing Failed States.
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband (born July 15, 1965) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and is the current Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He is the son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband. He and his younger brother Ed Miliband are the first siblings to sit in the Cabinet simultaneously since Austen and Neville Chamberlain.
Born in London, Miliband studied politics at universities both in England and the USA, and started his career as a policy analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy whilst the Labour Party was then in opposition and was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, following which Miliband was elected to parliament for the north-east England seat of South Shields.
Miliband spent the next several years in various junior ministerial posts in the British Government, including at the Department for Education and Skills, before becoming Environment Secretary. His tenure in this post saw climate change consolidated as a priority for UK policymakers. On the succession of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, Miliband was promoted to Foreign Secretary, at 41, the youngest person to hold the position in 30 years.
Radoslaw Sikorski
Radoslaw Sikorski was born in Bydgoszcz in 1963. He is a Bachelor and Master of Arts of Oxford University in philosophy, political sciences and economics (PPE).
He was chairman of the Students' Strike Committee during the events in Bydgoszcz in March 1981. Sikorski spent 1981-1989 in Great Britain as a political refugee. In 1986-1989 he worked as a reporter covering the wars in Afghanistan and Angola.
Country, south-central Asia. Area: 249,347 sq mi (645,807 sq km). Population (2009 est.): 28,150,000. Capital: Kabul. About two-fifths of the people belong to the Pashtun ethnic group; other ethnic groups include Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazara. Languages: Pashto, Persian (both official). Religions: Islam (official; predominantly Sunni); also Zoroastrianism. Currency: afghani. Afghanistan has three distinctive regions: the northern plains are the major agricultural area; the southwestern plateau consists primarily of desert and semiarid landscape; and the central highlands, including the Hindu Kush, separate these regions. Afghanistan has a developing economy based largely on agriculture; its significant mineral resources remain largely untapped because of the Afghan War of the 1980s and subsequent fighting. Traditional handicrafts remain important; woolen carpets are a major export. Afghanistan is an Islamic republic with two legislative bodies; the president is head of both state and government. The area was part of the Persian Achaemenian Empire in the 6th century BCE and was conquered by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. Hindu influence entered with the Hephthalites and Sasanians. Islam became entrenched during the rule of the Saffarids, c. 870 CE. Afghanistan was divided between the Mughal Empire of India and the Safavid empire of Persia until the 18th century, when other Persians under Nadir Shah took control. Britain fought several wars in the area in the 19th century. From the 1930s the country had a stable monarchy, which was overthrown in the 1970s. Marxist reforms sparked rebellion, and Soviet troops invaded. Afghan guerrillas prevailed, and the Soviets withdrew in 1989. In 1992 rebel factions overthrew the government and established an Islamic republic. In 1996 the Taliban militia took power in Kabul and enforced a harsh Islamic order. The militia's unwillingness to extradite extremist leader Osama bin Laden and members of his al-Qaeda militant organization following the September 11 attacks in 2001 led to military conflict with the U.S. and allied nations, the overthrow of the Taliban, and the establishment of an interim government.
Listening to the obscurantist views of Milliban is heart braking. He should be listening to Malalai Joya for a real view of what is going on. His coat is on a 'shooglie nail' (as we say in Scotland) with UK elections coming up and history will not judge these men well....
Mr Edward's statement that relationship between America and Pakistan seems to have been tortured in many ways- does not qualify the satisfaction of the readers like me what he has correctly meant out of the phrase"tortured in many ways"-since Pakistan has become a "direct reactive victim" of terrorism in this costly deal of relationship.Nevertheless, the ongoing strategic partnership is the bilateral need of both the countries-Pakistan and the United States.
member. 
