For those of you who track my movements a bit (hopefully all fans and not terrorists and spies) I have returned to Afghanistan. I left Eastern Afghanistan in mid-2013 to study in Yemen. What was supposed to be a brief 90 day visit became a 1 month delay (hiding out in DC & Colombia) then a 5 month move to Sana’a, Yemen. I left in early January 2014 when most expats began picking up and leaving as most of us faced deportation, fear from increased security threats (the kidnapping of American Journalist Luke Somers & the Ministry of Defense attack) or the general feel that the Yemeni government was really riding most of us in some way. The feeling that either the Yemeni government was going to detain and deport us or we were going to get shwacked by AQAP was a bit pressing I felt. Either way I left on my own accord to continue my academic sabbatical studies in Washington, DC.

I expected to be in DC for merely a matter of days to weeks, however this ballooned into about 6 months. My move back to DC was unexpected and in a very short period of time I had to acquire an entire American life after nearly 2.5 years overseas. Boom: Car, Apartment, Girlfriend, Income, Cable (side note: DirecTV sucks) and everything that goes along with returning after years abroad.

I laid low in DC for several months until in May when I completed my studies and immediately took another gig back in Afghanistan where I have been for a week now. I look forward to keeping you informed of the International Security Environment with special focus on Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and all critical hotspots the world over. Stay Tuned for some great analysis and increased activity.