With a US-Taliban peace agreement signed and NATO troops about to leave, Afghanistan is again at a decisive moment where its political and social order and its role as a western partner are renegotiated. The Taliban leadership seems ready to move from combat to politics. The current government crisis and hardened intra-Afghan conflicts put the pluralist-democratic achievements of the past twenty years at risk when going to the negotiation table with the Taliban. If the inner political struggles remain unsolved, Afghans risk losing all, its hard-won democracy and prospects for peace.

Ellinor Zeino, PhD, is Country Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung’s Afghanistan Office in Kabul. The main focus of her work and research is on the Afghan peace process in the context of regional and international interests, regional confidence-building and national reconciliation between Taliban and all sections of the Afghan society.