Emily Schneider is a program associate in the International Security Program at New America. She is also an assistant editor of the South Asia channel.
-, -: An image grab taken from a video broadcast on Al--Jazeera television 20 December 2006 shows Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri saying that only jihad, not elections, can bring about the liberation of occupied Palestinian territory. Osama bin Laden's right-hand man slammed Hamas, without naming it, for recognizing Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and taking part in elections on the basis of a secular constitution. The turbaned Egyptian-born Zawahiri frequently speaks for Al-Qaeda in video or audiotapes, some posted on internet sites, like As-Sahab, and others aired by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera. AFP PHOTO/AL-JAZEERA/AS-SAHAB (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images)
Deputy presidential spokesman Zafar Hashimi speaks during a press conference in Kabul on July 29, 2015. The Afghan government is investigating reports of the death of Taliban supremo Mullah Omar, a presidential spokesman said on July 29, amid frenzied speculation about the rumoured demise of the reclusive warrior-cleric. The Taliban have not officially confirmed the death of Mullah Omar, who has not been seen publicly since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban government in Kabul. AFP PHOTO / SHAH Marai (Photo credit should read SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images)
395454 01: (UNDATED PHOTO) Mullah Omar, chief of the Taliban, is shown in this headshot photo. Military forces from the United States and Britain have begun attacking targets October 7, 2001 in Afghanistan. (Photo by Getty Images)
Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers keep watch at a checkpoint ahead of the upcoming Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, on the outskirts of Jalalabad city in Nangarhar province on July 15, 2015. Afghan Muslims, like millions of Muslims around the world, are observing the holy month of Ramadan by fasting from dawn until dusk. AFP PHOTO/ Noorullah Shirzada (Photo credit should read Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images)
Indian Army personnel take position during an encounter with armed attackers at the police station in Dinanagar town, in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab state on July 27, 2015. Indian security forces were battling an armed attack on a police station near the Pakistan border in which at least five people have been killed. AFP PHOTO/ NARINDER NANU (Photo credit should read NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images)
TSINGTAO - APRIL 23: A Chinese Navy submarine attends an international fleet review to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy on April 23, 2009 off Qingdao in Shandong Province. Fifty-six Chinese subs, destroyers, frigates, missile boats and planes were displayed off the eastern port city of Qingdao just weeks after tensions flared following a naval stand-off with the United States in the South China Sea. POOL (Photo by Guang Niu/AFP/Getty Images)
Tourists visit at the Baltit fort in Karimabad, a town of northern Hunza valley on August 3, 2014. After a slump in tourism that has lasted more than a decade, the streets of Karimabad in Pakistan's idyllic northern Hunza Valley are bursting once again with visitors enjoying the city's sights and sounds -- but the locals aren't happy. AFP PHOTO/ Aamir QURESHI (Photo credit should read AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images)
Members of the media wait on the Supreme Court lawn in New Delhi on December 11, 2013. India's Supreme Court upheld a colonial-era law criminalising homosexuality in a landmark judgment that crushes activists' hopes for guarantees on sexual freedom in the world's biggest democracy. A two-judge bench cancelled a Delhi High Court ruling in 2009 that section 377 of the Indian penal code prohibiting people from engaging in "carnal acts against the order of nature" infringed the fundamental rights of Indians. AFP PHOTO/Prakash SINGH (Photo credit should read PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images)
Activists of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), march at a protest in Karachi on July 14, 2015. Pakistani police have registered a case under terrorism laws against the leader of a major political party who lives in exile in London over a speech criticising the country's powerful military establishment. AFP PHOTO / Rizwan TABASSUM (Photo credit should read RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images)
Pakistani Rangers patrol along the Pakistan-India border area of Wagah on October 16, 2014. Cross-border firing re-erupted in the disputed region of Kashmir October 14 wounding four children, as senior Pakistani and Indian military officials spoke by phone following more than a week of deadly skirmishes. At least 20 civilians have been killed and thousands on both sides of the de facto border have fled their homes since October 6, which marked the beginning of some of the worst frontier shelling in years. AFP PHOTO/ Arif ALI (Photo credit should read Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
Guests arrive for the opening ceremony of the new Taliban political office in Doha on June 18, 2013. The office is intended to open dialogue with the international community and Afghan groups for a "peaceful solution" in Afghanistan office spokesman Mohammed Naim told reporters. AFP PHOTO / FAISAL AL-TIMIMI (Photo credit should read FAISAL AL-TIMIMI/AFP/Getty Images)
A French military officer, pilots an Israeli Harfang drone, bought by the French army and used in the Operation Barkhane, an anti-terrorist operation in the Sahel, inside the Drone command center, on June 9, 2015 in the French army base in Nianey, Niger. AFP PHOTO/PHILIPPE DESMAZES (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images)
The Ford Foundation logo is pictured outside its office in New Delhi on April 24, 2015. India has cracked down on the Ford Foundation, saying the US charity can no longer give money to local organisations without government permission, the latest move against a foreign NGO, an official said. AFP PHOTO / PRAKASH SINGH (Photo credit should read PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images)
Afghan policemen carry the dead body of a civilian into a hospital morgue following a suicide attack in Khost province on December 26, 2012. A Taliban suicide car bombing hit a US-run base in eastern Afghanistan on December 26, killing at least three Afghans and wounding seven others, officials said. AFP PHOTO/ Mohammad Rasool Adil (Photo credit should read MOHAMMAD RASOOL ADIL/AFP/Getty Images)
From L: Uzbekistans President Islam Karimov, Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon, South Africas President Jacob Zuma, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chinas President Xi Jinping, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, Brazils President Dilma Rousseff, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian pose for a family photo during the 7th BRICS summit in Ufa on July 9, 2015. AFP PHOTO / ALEXANDER NEMENOV (Photo credit should read ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images)
