Calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a crisis of Biden’s own making

September 09, 2021

Ian Bremmer Explains: Withdrawal From Afghanistan a Crisis of Biden’s Own Making | GZERO World

Joe Biden has been looking for a way out of Afghanistan for decades, and regardless of how ugly things get, he's not turning back. After Trump reached a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to end the war, Biden decided to stick with the arrangement, overruling his own generals. Ian Bremmer explains that while he agrees with Biden's decision to get out, he did not foresee the incompetence of the execution. In that sense, the last few weeks have constituted the greatest foreign policy crisis for President Biden to date, and one that was largely self-imposed. Ian looks at four key failures led to this disaster on GZERO World.

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Calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a crisis of Biden’s own making

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Israel approved the Gaza ceasefire deal on Friday morning, bringing the ceasefire officially into effect. The Israeli military must withdraw its forces to an agreed perimeter inside Gaza within 24 hours, and Hamas has 72 hours to return the hostages.

We’re living in a time of record-high conflict, a level of violence not seen since World War II. The past four years have been marred by deadly battles in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, and beyond, with approximately 14% of the planet’s population now impacted by war.

Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.

French President Emmanuel Macron is scrambling to pull France out of a deepening political free fall that’s already toppled five prime ministers in two years. Tomorrow he’ll try again—and this time, says Eurasia Group’s Mujtaba Rahman, the fifth pick might finally stick.

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Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

After two years of war in Gaza, a ceasefire and peace deal may finally be within reach, and Ian Bremmer says former President Trump deserves credit for.

Washington and Toronto buzzed this week with talk of the Canada-US relationship. On Tuesday Prime Minister Mark Carney joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a warm but inconclusive meeting.

China has implemented broad new restrictions on exports of rare earth and other critical minerals vital for semiconductors, the auto industry, and military technology, of which it controls 70% of the global supply.