Afghanistan, One Year Later

On August 15th, 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden announced the full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban swept into Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and the institutions of the Islamic Republic collapsed. The 20-year Western involvement in Afghanistan had suddenly come to an end: only a few weeks later, the Taliban announced the reestablishment of an Islamic Emirate. One year after that moment, as the world’s most serious humanitarian and human rights crisis looms over the country’s 38 million population, this ISPI Dossier aims to draw up an assessment of how the Emirate has performed so far. Have the Taliban managed to win over Afghans? Who opposes, and who talks to Afghanistan’s new rulers? What room for maneuver does the international community have to engage the Taliban state and avoid the Afghan population further suffering?