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    • Adnan R. Khan

    Adnan R. Khan has been on the ground for Maclean's in some of the world's most unfriendly places, from Pakistan to Iraq, writing about conflict, politics, society, and the occasional vacationing tips in Afghanistan. He claims to be based in a small cabin somewhere on Turkey's Mediterranean coast though no one can definitively prove it.
    An armed man stands by the remains of a Russian military vehicle in Bucha, close to the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 1, 2022 (AP Photo/Serhii Nuzhnenko)

    Why Russia should fear the coming insurgency in Ukraine

    All the key ingredients for a powerful insurgency now exist in Ukraine. If the battle turns to brutal urban warfare, Russia is in ‘big trouble’.

    Representatives of the Taliban leave Gardermoen Airport after attending meetings in Oslo, Norway, on Jan. 25, 2022 (Javad Parsa/NTB via AP)

    How the world is legitimizing the Taliban

    Adnan R. Khan: Every political engagement and dollar spent in Afghanistan brings an internationally-sanctioned terrorist organization one step closer to unofficial recognition

    Members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces, volunteer military units of the Armed Forces, train in a city park in Kyiv, Ukraine on Jan. 22, 2022 (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

    The hawks are screeching over Ukraine. Will cooler heads prevail?

    Adnan R. Khan: There are far more effective ways the world can push back against Russian threats than with weapons and troops. War is what Putins wants.

    Nishan is still in medical school, but few options are open to her after graduation (Photograph by Oriane Zerah)

    The world left these Afghan women behind. Now they’re fending for themselves.

    Educated in a Canadian-funded school, they became Afghanistan’s best and brightest young women. Today they live in fear, abandoned to the Taliban.

    Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, delivers the Throne Speech in the Senate in Ottawa on Nov. 23, 2021 (Sean Kilpatrick/CP)

    Did the Liberals just promise a better foreign policy?

    Adnan R. Khan: Canada’s foreign service is a mess. The Throne Speech suggests the Liberal government knows it.

    Erdogan addresses his ruling party members at the parliament, in Ankara, Turkey, on Feb. 12, 2020 (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

    Canada’s diplomatic blunder in Turkey

    Adnan R. Khan: Turkey’s standoff with 10 ambassadors, including Canada’s, was political grandstanding, and Erdogan came out the winner

    Chris Nobrega, 2021 (Johnny C.Y. Lam for Maclean's; Mural photo: Getty Images)

    An incomplete mission: For Chris Nobrega, no wars were won after 9/11

    Over the past two decades, Nobrega has had a unique, occasionally jarring, view of a world in flux. Afghanistan was merely the first stage.

    Hadia Essazada (Photograph by Farrah Skeiky; mural photograph: Wasim Mirzaie)

    Post 9/11, young Afghans tasted peace. Now, Hadia Essazada is in exile.

    When the Taliban fell after 9/11, Afghanistan entered a period of hope. For Essazada, it feels as if the Taliban have won again.

    David Adeeb Hassan, 2021 (Photograph by Carlos Osorio; Mural photo: Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

    ‘Hatred thrives when there is fear:’ What David Adeeb Hassan has learned since 9/11

    ‘We are as much a part of the fabric of this community as anyone. But people didn’t know this. So post-9/11, we opened our doors,’ says Hassan, the then-chairman of the London Muslim Mosque.

    In this picture taken in the late hours on August 22, 2021 British and Canadian soldiers stand guard near a canal as Afghans wait outside the foreign military-controlled part of the airport in Kabul, hoping to flee the country following the Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan. (Wakil Koshar/AFP/Getty Images)

    The last trip out of Afghanistan: ‘There is no way back. Taliban are outside.’

    They had close ties to Canada and were being hunted by the Taliban. Trapped in a dangerous, desperate crowd, the odds were against them.

    Taliban fighters patrol in Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul on Aug. 18, 2021 (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

    Left to the Taliban: ‘Nobody from Canada has contacted us’

    Adnan R. Khan: While other countries hurriedly work to get people out, Canada’s Prime Minister appears to not have a clue. And this country’s silence is deafening.

    The site of a former residential school where hundreds of unmarked graves were detected, in Cowessess First Nation, Sask., on July 6, 2021 (Liam Richards/CP)

    Coming to terms with a national shame

    Adnan R. Khan: The lessons from other countries that have had to confront mass graves are clear—shining a light into our darkest corners is the only way forward

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