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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    Pakistan’s interim government: A challenging road ahead
    BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Pakistan’s interim government: A challenging road ahead

    After the conclusion of the 16-month rule of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the appointment of a new caretaker government has created uncertainty. This raises doubts about whether Pakistan will smoothly transition to another democratic government or if the caretaker setup will exceed its constitutional mandate.

    August 29, 2023

    Naade Ali

    Making sense of the Taliban’s counterterrorism assurances
    (Photo by Mohammad Noori/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Making sense of the Taliban’s counterterrorism assurances

    Two years on from the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan’s neighbors are increasingly concerned that their return to power has emboldened terrorist groups and networks, which are using the hospitable environment to regroup, rearm, and recruit substantially. The main question now for Afghanistan’s neighbors in the region, and the international community more broadly, is just how reliable the Taliban’s counterterrorism assurances to other states really are.

    August 18, 2023

    Nishank Motwani

    The Taliban’s unsustainable war on drugs
  • Commentary

    • The Taliban’s unsustainable war on drugs

    According to multiple media reports, Taliban anti-narcotics units have managed to effect a drastic reduction in opium cultivation in Afghanistan. Assisted by armed Taliban soldiers, stick-wielding personnel are hopping from one opium-growing field to another, destroying standing crops in a large number of provinces. Overseen by international media, such operations may have resulted in an almost 80 percent reduction in opium cultivation this year in the country, which not long ago accounted for 85 percent of the world’s opium.

    June 27, 2023

    Shanthie Mariet D'Souza

    Pakistan’s establishment closing the curtain on Imran Khan and his party
    Photo by FAROOQ NAEEM/AFP via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • Pakistan’s establishment closing the curtain on Imran Khan and his party

    The likelihood of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan successfully extricating himself from his entwined battle with the Army now appears to be nearly impossible. He has crossed too many red lines for the military establishment to give him slack. The developing situation ahead of the October elections looks set to culminate with Khan imprisoned and stripped of his political party.

    India-Taliban relations: A careful balancing act, driven by pragmatism
    Photo by Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
  • Analysis

    • India-Taliban relations: A careful balancing act, driven by pragmatism

    An ongoing power struggle for the position of ambassador at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi underlines India’s diplomatic quandary about the nature of its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

    May 30, 2023

    Vinay Kaura

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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.

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