Experts don't expect Biden to drastically change Trump's Afghanistan policy

There is some concern from within Afghanistan's government and general populace, as well as NATO leadership, that President Trump's push to withdraw troops from the country before he leaves the White House is too hasty, NPR reports. Subsequently, there's some hope that President-elect Joe Biden will reverse, or at least slow the course.

But some experts in the U.S. are warning those folks not to keep their hopes up too high since Biden has long supported significantly scaling back U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group, said Biden has "remained insistent throughout the last decade that bringing American troop numbers down to just a few thousand and really only focusing on targeted strikes of the very worst of the very worst threats to regional and American security was the only thing that the U.S. should be doing in Afghanistan."

Elizabeth Threlkeld, the South Asia deputy director at the Washington-based Stimson Center, told NPR the Biden administration will probably bring about a "change of tone" that's more "multilateral and measured" since their decision-making won't be dependent "on the tweets of the morning." But, ultimately, she thinks "those hopes for a change in direction are likely to be short-lived." Read more at NPR.

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