India, traditionally reluctant to engage with the Taliban, recently hedged its bets by initiating contact—with Qatar’s support. But unlike many in the West, India’s leadership is not buying into the narrative of Kabul’s impending fall and the Taliban’s immediate and inevitable return to power. Read More Here
India is worried. As the last U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, there is palpable fear in New Delhi that the return of the Taliban to power might mean the return of Pakistan-funded jihadi groups that have a history of attacking India. Read More Here
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan today also reinforces the strongly held conviction in Beijing that the US is in terminal decline. Coming at a time when China is offering an alternative to the Western model of domestic and international governance, the US defeat in Afghanistan will be seen in Beijing as a great ideological victory. […]
As US and British forces pull out of Afghanistan, further victims of the ‘grave of empires’, Russia is experiencing a mix of satisfaction, exasperation and trepidation. It has its own bitter memories of the country, after all. Read More Here
As US and NATO forces withdraw faster than previously planned from Afghanistan, violence is escalating in what could be a foretaste of a wider war to come. Many believe the Taliban aims to exploit the vacuum left by the US-NATO troop withdrawal to seize control of the capital Kabul and re-establish an Islamic Emirate, similar […]
With the Taliban more powerful than ever and poised to reclaim power in Afghanistan, the only external victor will be Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. But as the ISI knows, the problem with creating and sponsoring militant groups is that they do not always remain under your control. Read More Here
The key to the war in Afghanistan is not American soldiers but American dollars. The Biden administration should couple the withdrawal of soldiers with a long-term commitment to monetary aid which prioritizes sustainability, avoids unrealistic conditions, and shares the burden with foreign donors. Read Here
China has consistently seen the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as godsends that blessed China with a golden “window of strategic opportunity” to develop its strength without alarming the United States after 2001. Thus, the U.S. war in Afghanistan is viewed with both negativity and schadenfreude in China. Read Here | WarOnTheRocks
New Delhi has a long road ahead of it. Pakistan will likely oppose and undermine any Indian engagement with the Afghan Taliban. Amidst this highly volatile and uncertain situation, the possibility of a proxy war between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan is very much possible Read Here | The Diplomat
One cannot but feel mildly amused at the theatrical spectacle of the US troop pullout from Afghanistan, its completion day now postponed for maximum PR impact to 9/11, 2021. Nearly two decades and a staggering US$2 trillion after this Forever War was launched by a now immensely indebted empire, the debacle can certainly be interpreted […]
