More: Taliban
Legitimacy Without Leverage: What the Moscow Format’s Collapse Reveals About Engaging the Taliban
On 5 October, the eighth round of the Moscow Format consultations on Afghanistan ended without a joint statement for the first time since the...
When the Fighting Stops but the Conflict Doesn’t: Afghanistan and the Limits of Negative Peace
Peace is often understood as the absence of war. In Afghanistan, there is no active war under Taliban rule, but in the Afghani society, the...
Why Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban Went From Allies to Enemies
Pakistan's air force recently attacked 10 places in Afghanistan. This is the second time in four days they have done this, following a period...
When Censorship Becomes Law: The Taliban’s Transformation of Information Control
From Media Restrictions to a Legal Architecture of Silence
The most consequential development in Afghanistan's information environment may no longer be the individual restrictions imposed...
Europe’s Pragmatic Betrayal: How Human Rights Became Negotiable
European officials met with Taliban regime representatives in Brussels last month. The meetings were quiet, focused on practical issues like migration and counterterrorism, and...
EU Hosts Taliban Officials in Brussels for First Time Amid Deportation Talks
European Union officials met a delegation from the Taliban administration in Brussels for the first time, marking a significant step in the bloc's limited...
Afghanistan Claims Strikes in Pakistan as Border Tensions Escalate
Afghanistan's Taliban government said it carried out airstrikes against militant hideouts inside Pakistan, marking what would be one of Kabul's most significant cross border...
Russia’s Taliban Engagement: Strategic Logic, Inherent Contradictions, and Regional Implications
Russia's May 2026 military-technical cooperation agreement with Afghanistan's Taliban government represents a calculated geopolitical calculation rather than ideological alignment. Russia became the first country...
Afghanistan Under Taliban Rule: Governance Through Systematic Repression and Gender Apartheid
Afghanistan's Taliban governance since August 2021 has evolved from ad-hoc rule through violence into a systematized apparatus of repression codified through formal legislation. What...
Taliban Arrests Raise Fears for Afghan Women
The United Nations says Taliban authorities in western Afghanistan arrested at least 30 women in Herat for allegedly violating the government's hijab regulations. According...