There appears to be a paradigm shift in the United States policy and strategy concerning the war and fight against terrorists. The war on terror has lasted almost more than a decade and the US and its international allies have invested too much in treasure and blood. They have achieved some considerable victories and successes, including killing some top terrorist leaders.

But they are yet to win the war and accomplish the mission here in Afghanistan. Ten years ago, Afghanistan was one of the most terrible places for human rights and women's rights and source of threat to international security and global peace because a bunch of lunatics and hard-line religious extremists had taken over the country and harbored terrorists from the region and beyond who were able to operate freely in the country and orchestrate and plot attacks wherever they wanted.

International community are yet to make sure that Afghanistan does not remain a failed state because a failed state is source of violation of human rights inside the given territory and it is also a source of threat to security and peace of the world.

So, one of the popular preoccupations is the idea of saving failed states in order to fight international terrorism. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which led to thousands of deaths, and the fact that the terrorist network Al-Qaeda operated training camps in Afghanistan, the international community based on conventional wisdom has linked international terrorism with failing or failed states.

In other words, the fear among Western policy makers is that state failure is fomenting security threats that could have ramifications not just locally but across globe. Afghanistan is yet to build a strong state and strengthen its government institutions.

The insurgents and terrorists have been able to continue the war and stymie the state-building process and development efforts. The regional elements based on their strategic interests have been able to keep links with the insurgents and terrorist groups to benefit both economically and politically-strategically.

These regional elements in the meanwhile have been pretending to be the main allies in the war on terror. But the US has decided to crack down on the insurgents that operate both inside and outside Afghanistan.

It is going to put pressure on the supporters and sponsors of these terrorists and insurgents as well to stop using them for their strategic purposes. The US and NATO have leverages to use to convince the regional elements that spouse the hard-line militants to change course.

These include cutoff of aid and assistance provided by the US to its regional allies as well as changing the supply routes which have been earning the regional allies hugely.