Conflict in Afghanistan: A new regional security map

The Taliban’s swift power takeover in Kabul marked the end of the protracted two-decade armed conflict between the Taliban insurgency and the US-led coalition forces and Afghan government. While levels of political violence have expectedly decreased since then, violence against civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, the free press, rights activists, and women remarkably increased. In the short-term, Afghanistan faces a humanitarian disaster with 94% of its population being food-insecure as the country goes through its worst drought in nearly three decades.
In this IISS Conflict Briefing, Dr Benjamin Petrini, Dr Dawood Azami, Kate Bateman, Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Dr Antonio Giustozzi and John Raine reflect on the domestic and regional implications of the Taliban takeover, the current state of the state-building efforts in the country, and the way forward in regional security terms.
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