Afghanistan

The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict: A strategic concern for the US
  • Analysis

    • The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict: A strategic concern for the US

    Pakistan’s relationship with the Afghan Taliban has shifted from open sponsorship in the 1990s to a silent partnership following 2001 to alienation and belligerence since 2021. Their current conflict, which comes at great cost to both countries and seems to have no easy military or political resolution, also poses a threat to the stability and prosperity of neighboring states. Although American strategic interests in the region greatly diminished following the United States’ military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the region’s altered political dynamics have prompted a growing American engagement with Pakistan and tentatively with Afghanistan. At the same time, the US has become a factor in how both Islamabad and Kabul have come to form their national security strategies.

    Don't believe the hype: The modest reality of the Saudi-Pakistani defense pact
    Image created by Oleksii Liskonih via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Don't believe the hype: The modest reality of the Saudi-Pakistani defense pact

    The September 17 Saudi-Pakistani defense agreement generated a wave of overheated commentary about Saudi Arabia now residing under a Pakistani nuclear umbrella and how a new strategic reality was in the offing in the Persian Gulf and South Asian regions. Analysts need to slow their roll. Extended deterrence is an extremely difficult thing to pull off. The devil is in the details, about which we know nothing.

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    The Taliban: Unrecognized and unrepentant
    Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • The Taliban: Unrecognized and unrepentant

    Despite expectations that China, Russia, and other states would try to exploit the Western military departure from Afghanistan, the Taliban’s regime remains unrecognized by any other government. Neighboring countries have not gone beyond limited diplomatic engagement, economic detachment, and security containment.

    April 1, 2022

    Richard Weitz Weitz

    China draws closer to the Taliban as regional foreign ministers prepare to meet in Beijing
    Photo by Li Ran/Xinhua via Getty Images 
  • Analysis

    • China draws closer to the Taliban as regional foreign ministers prepare to meet in Beijing

    Despite the loss of crucial foreign aid, a deepening food crisis, and a sinking economy, little attention has been given to the effects of Afghanistan’s current political instability on the Taliban’s international relations. The international community has certainly taken an interest in Afghanistan, urging the Taliban to implement reforms, such as political representation for all Afghan ethnicities and respect for women’s rights, particularly when it comes to education and work. For its part, however, China has not let such concerns get in the way of establishing strong ties with the Afghan Taliban.

    March 24, 2022

    Vinay Kaura

    To save Afghanistan, try differently
    Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Imageshttps://www.mei.edu/sites/default/files/2022-03/To%20Save%20Afghanistan%2C%20Try%20Differently.pdf
  • Analysis

    • To save Afghanistan, try differently

    As global attention shifts further away from Afghanistan to Ukraine and elsewhere, time is running out to change course before the country’s freefall under the Taliban becomes irreversible. The international community needs a two-pronged, interlinked approach to normalize the economy and stabilize the political scene.

    March 14, 2022

    Sayed Madadi

    Taliban rule of Afghanistan at six months
  • Podcast

    • Taliban rule of Afghanistan at six months

    Marvin Weinbaum and Sayed Madadi discuss Afghanistan’s worsening economic and humanitarian crises six months after the Taliban reclaimed control of the country.

    February 25, 2022

    The Pakistani Taliban’s radical rebranding: Is there more than meets the eye?
    Security officials and relatives attend a funeral ceremony of a slain policeman, who was killed in an attack claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in the border town of Chaman on January 28, 2022. (Photo by Abdul BASIT / AFP) (Photo by ABDUL BASIT/AFP via Getty Images)
  • Analysis

    • The Pakistani Taliban’s radical rebranding: Is there more than meets the eye?

    In a statement released on Feb. 12, the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) distanced itself from international terrorism, declaring that its violence was singularly focused on Pakistan. While the TTP’s recent comments on America are unprecedented, they do fit into its broader rebranding effort under the leadership of Noor Wali Mehsud, who took over the group in 2018.

    February 24, 2022

    Arif Rafiq

    The dangers of empowering the Taliban
    Photo by HOSHANG HASHIMI/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • The dangers of empowering the Taliban

    For years, the world tried to soften the Taliban’s extremist ideology by exposing them to modernity. As an insurgency they learned diplomacy and negotiation tactics, but their medieval thinking remained just as rigid. Now that the Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the international community continues to appease them, assuming it can convince them to form an inclusive government and ease their regressive policies while alleviating the country’s worsening humanitarian disaster. That is a naïve assumption that overlooks the root causes of the current crisis. Not only will the international community not get what it wants, but it also risks creating a much greater crisis: a Taliban theocracy that institutionalizes its repressive rule at a steep human and economic cost.

    February 14, 2022

    Sayed Madadi

    The Taliban’s religious roadmap for Afghanistan
    Photo by MOHD RASFAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • The Taliban’s religious roadmap for Afghanistan

    After a grueling 20-year campaign, America concluded its war in Afghanistan where it started: with the Taliban in charge. But this isn’t your father’s Taliban. In recognition of their need for a firmer ideological base and their desire to establish a purely Islamic system, the Taliban rulers are gradually putting together the framework for their new ideological state. They are enacting three closely intertwined ideological initiatives in order to solidify their rule: fleshing out a state religious ideology, burnishing their “originalist” religious credentials, and channeling Afghan nationalism into religious nationalism. These ongoing efforts, which revolve around the Taliban’s Islamism, provide a preview of how the new rulers intend to interact with temporal political realities by provoking religious reform in order to rule Afghanistan.

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    Taliban Leadership Tracker

    MEI’s Taliban Leadership Tracker is a detailed database mapping 1,200 leaders and appointees wielding influence throughout the Taliban government. Produced and maintained by MEI Non-Resident Scholar Javid Ahmad, the database can be used to help identify individuals who wield various forms of influence, ones who may be receptive to dialogue and collaboration, as well as those involved in rights violations, abuses, or criminal and terrorist activities.

    View Tracker