International influence has long played a role in the conflict dynamics in Afghanistan. The United States and the Soviet Union famously waged a proxy war in the country, and since the September 11th terrorist attacks the country has featured prominently in the US-led “war on terror.” But while the conflicts in Afghanistan have long been internationalised, the roots of foreign ideological influence on the country’s political dynamics pre-date the outbreak of the jihad and ensuing cycles of insurgency. As a new regime begins to coalesce in Kabul, it is important to keep in mind the role that influence from abroad has played in shaping some of the features of Afghan statehood.

Julian Tucker is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm, Sweden. He holds an MA in Central Asian Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin and a BA in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Language from McGill University. His research interests include the post-Soviet development in Central Asia, the political history of Afghanistan, Chinese regional diplomacy and responses to climate change.

The fall of Kabul in August 2021 marked the end of 20 years of German civilian and military engagement in Afghanistan. Over this time, more than 90,000 Bundeswehr soldiers were deployed in Afghanistan, 59 of whom died there. At a cost of about EUR 12.3 bn, the engagement in the Afghanistan missions amounted to the largest and most costly military operation in the history of the Bundeswehr. This contribution reflects upon parliamentary involvement throughout this period, placing emphasis on the initial political decisions and turning points of the Afghanistan engagement.

Patrick A. Mello is Privatdozent at the Technical University of Munich and Research Associate at the Chair of European and Global Governance at the Hochschule für Politik München. His research focuses on questions related to international security and foreign policy, especially concerning the influence of parliaments, the impact of party politics, and multinational military coalitions. His book Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict (Palgrave Macmillan) received the 2015 Dissertation Award of the German Political Science Association.

The speed at which Taliban fighters captured Kabul on 15 August – after having waged nearly two decades of war with the Afghan government and its Western allies – caught most analysts by surprise. But the Taliban’s transition from a militant force to the governing power of Afghanistan has come with numerous challenges. The major challenge in this regard was the formation of an interim cabinet by maintaining internal cohesion within various factions of the Taliban movement. When the new interim administration – or the caretaker cabinet – was announced by the group, it was seen to be composed of almost exclusively Pashtun Taliban officials – largely clerical, all male and mostly the old guard – who had previously held ministerial positions in the first government of the Taliban that ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s. But the rise of the Haqqani Network within the Taliban ranks is visibly evident in this new interim government. Unlike the 1990s, when the leader of the Haqqani Network was kept away from the Taliban’s real decisionmaking circle, the Haqqani Network – presently under the leadership of Sirajuddin Haqqani – has become one of the most influential decision-making authorities in Kabul. Due to its military might and access to resources, the Haqqani faction has become dominant within the Taliban in relation to the Kandahari faction, which traditionally held sway over the movement. This article will attempt to understand what the rise of the Haqqani Network means for the traditional Taliban leadership. Will it pose a greater risk of internal fragmentation within the Taliban movement? How the Haqqani Network might influence the Taliban movement in the future will also be discussed. The author argues that the ascendency of the Haqqani Network does not imply that the Taliban movement will fragment in the near future. It is quite unlikely that the rivalry between the traditional Taliban leadership and the Haqqani Network, which is often exaggerated by some analysts, will pose a major challenge to the Taliban movement. The Taliban may have a number of internal factions, but their longstanding strategic aims and objectives have remained almost the same, which has encouraged differing fractions within the movement not to break away from the core group. Therefore, since taking power, the Taliban has managed to retain internal cohesion and avoid any kind of fragmentation within the organisation, as the Taliban leadership is reluctant to cross the internal red lines that might threaten the group’s cohesion in the coming period.

Anchita Borthakur is a research scholar in the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. Her research interests include Afghanistan, security studies, migration, ethnicity, religion and politics. She has published research articles in a number of wellrespected journals and contributed chapters to edited volumes

Modern Afghanistan has never been able to establish a powerful central state despite the country having experienced different political systems. The decades-long conflicts are rooted in the lack of an effective, communicative relationship between the centre Kabul and rural areas. The issue of rural locality has been intensified by a huge diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, sect, language, and culture. Thus, rurality is not merely interpreted as locality, but as ethnicity, language, and religion. This article briefly investigates the concept of local governance in Afghan politics.

Katja Mielke, PhD, works as Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC). She conducts research on state-society relations in contexts of conflict and crisis, political and social mobilisation, migration and peacemaking. Her regional focus is on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, and Iraq and its neighbourhood.

Modern Afghanistan has never been able to establish a powerful central state despite the country having experienced different political systems. The decades-long conflicts are rooted in the lack of an effective, communicative relationship between the centre Kabul and rural areas. The issue of rural locality has been intensified by a huge diversity in terms of ethnicity, religion, sect, language, and culture. Thus, rurality is not merely interpreted as locality, but as ethnicity, language, and religion. This article briefly investigates the concept of local governance in Afghan politics.

S. Asef Hossaini was born in Balkh, in the north of Afghanistan. He grew up as a refugee in Iran, studying philosophy and sociology at Kabul University before joining his master programme in public policy at the Willy Brandt School at the University of Erfurt. He defended his PhD in International Conflict Management in 2017 at the same school. He is currently an online editor.

With the 1990s, the belief that economically and politically unstable states pose a threat to global peace and security became widespread. As a result of this belief, the stabilisation of these states through foreign aid began to be evaluated as a collective responsibility. Afghanistan is one of these examples, especially within the framework of the efforts carried out in the post-2001 period. Although 20 years of efforts have failed to stabilise the country, the international community faces a serious dilemma in providing aid to the Taliban regime. This article discusses the effects of foreign aid and state-building policies in Afghanistan since 2001, and the challenges of maintaining of foreign aid to the country during the Taliban rule.

Emrah Özdemir is Associate Professor of International Relations at Çankırı Karatekin University. His research includes global politics, security studies and war studies, specifically irregular warfare, and post-conflict remedies. He has published articles in a number of prestigious journals and chapters in books such as Routledge Handbook of Peace, Security and Development, Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict (3rd Ed.) and The Future of Middle East.

Emrah Özdemir
Foreign aid in Afghanistan as an international security and foreign policy tool

S. Asef Hossaini
Local governance in Afghanistan: A solution to a failed state?

Katja Mielke
Looking beyond stereotypes: A critical reflection of popular narratives about the Taliban movement

Anchita Borthakur
The Taliban’s interim administration: The rise of the Haqqani Network and its implications

Patrick A. Mello
German parliamentary debates and decision-making on Afghanistan

Alessandro Arduino
China’s anxiety over Afghanistan

Julian Tucker
A brief history of international influence in Afghanistan

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India has a long-standing relationship with the Middle East region. The Middle East – or West Asia – has had a great impact on Indian culture and vocabulary Arabian and Persian traders used to come to India, meaning that economic connectivity between India and West Asia is centuries old. Through the ages, India and West Asia have interacted in
different ways. Since India achieved independence, the relational patterns between the two have witnessed many ups and downs and the West Asian region now plays a significant role in India’s economy. India is maintaining a fine balance between Israel and Palestine, while from the viewpoint of political security, India has signed prisoner repatriation treaties
with various West Asian countries. India has also signed various agreements with Israel to purchase defence equipment. Traditional relations aside, India adopted a specific “Look West” policy in 2005 in order to deepen engagement with its West Asian neighbours. Historically, West Asian countries have been considered as the “extended”, and “proximate”
neighbours. The role of third parties (e.g. USA, China, Russia and Pakistan) is very significant in relational equations. India
has established its multidimensional relations with West Asian regional organisations.

Debasish Nandy is an Associate Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, West Bengal, India. He is the Visiting Faculty in the Department of Foreign Area Studies at Tajik National University, Dushanbe, Republic of Tajikistan. His research interests include India’s Foreign Policy, South Asian Politics, Refugees and Migration, and Security Affairs.

The main shift in Russia’s Middle East policy, upgraded since 2015, has been a move away from Western-centeredness towards more active engagement with, and balancing between, regional actors. The article explores the benefits, costs and risks associated with such regionalisation for Moscow, outlines key interests pursued by Russia in view of its new regional role and analyses its implications for Europe. It tries to explain why, despite the EU’s more balanced approach to the Middle East, the space for Russia-Europe cooperation in the region appears even more limited than that with the United States and identifies a few areas of confluence of interest and potential cooperation.

Ekaterina Stepanova is Lead Researcher and Head of Peace and Conflict Studies Unit, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Moscow. Her research focus is on armed conflicts, peace processes, peacebuilding, terrorism, radicalisation, human security and political economy of conflicts. Her several books include ISIS and the Phenomenon of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Syria and Iraq (IMEMO, 2020) and Terrorism in Asymmetrical Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2008).