Afghanistan Archives

Afghanistan as ‘Contiguous Neighbour’: India’s Reassertion of Its Northern Frontier

India's reference to Afghanistan as a ‘contiguous neighbour’ is a calibrated strategy to underscore the enduring nature of India’s historical connections.

Emerging Regional Split on Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan

Deteriorating ties between Pakistan and the Taliban are shaping an emerging regional split vis-à-vis Afghanistan.

Change and Continuity: India’s Growing Engagement with the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan

Even as India normalises diplomatic ties with the Taliban, its long-term Afghanistan strategy remains focused on developmental efforts.

Pakistan’s Afghanistan Problem

The Taliban 2.0 have refused to bow to Pakistan’s dictates on multiple issues, including on cracking down on the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and their relationship with India.

China’s Role in Afghanistan and Pakistan Post US-Nato Withdrawal: Implications for India

The monograph examines the inception of China's geostrategic/geo-economic pivot towards Pakistan— and more recently, Afghanistan— before charting the trajectory of its expanding role in the Af-Pak region. It assesses the viability of the evolving geopolitical triangle comprising China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, before evaluating possible Chinese strategy behind deepening engagement with a region marked by chronic volatility. The study, in particular, assesses China's strategic interests in Afghanistan and how Pakistan remains central to its Afghan policy. The monograph also seeks to explore whether the return of the Taliban and China's rising profile in the region would signal the evolution and fruition of China's Af-Pak strategy. By examining both convergences and divergences in Afghanistan and Pakistan's bilateral ties with China, the study investigates the contours of a potentially hyphenated approach. It concludes by outlining prominent security paradigms in the region and the inherent dilemmas that shape China's strategic calculus in this complex geopolitical theatre.

Priyanka Singh
October 31, 2025
Monograph

India, Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban: Evolving Dynamics

South Asia is witnessing new alignments, with divergences between old allies (the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan) and convergences between new partners (India and the Afghan Taliban).

China–Afghanistan Relations: Hope, Hype and More

Publisher: Pentagon Press

China has been a part of the Afghan maze, but landlocked Afghanistan seemed to have factored either marginally or episodically in its geopolitical quests in the past decades. While the role of certain regional actors in Afghanistan has been far widely debated and analysed, China’s role, particularly the nature and scope of its bilateral interactions and engagements with various Afghan regimes in Kabul, from Zahir Shah to the Taliban, has remained comparatively understudied. This book is a modest effort in that direction.

ISBN: 978-81-991162-4-5,
Price: ₹ 1295/-
E-copy available

Vishal Chandra
August 13, 2025
Book

Afghanistan Under Taliban

Publisher: Pentagon Press

The edited volume comprises 16 chapters contributed by Afghan, Central Asian, Iranian, Russian, Western, and Indian scholars and analysts. The chapters not only dwell on country perspectives but also key issues of concern to the people of Afghanistan and the wider region. It includes terrorism, transnational crime, drug production and distribution, the governance system and the state of education in Afghanistan. The contributions in the volume paint an unflattering view of the ground reality in Afghanistan, and a connecting thread of pessimism runs through various analyses.

ISBN: 978-81-988370-8-0,
Price: ₹ 1295/-
E-copy available

Vishal Chandra
August 5, 2025
Book

Taliban’s Amnesty: An Assessment

The Taliban's unwritten and ambiguous 'general amnesty' neither implies Tpolitical integration nor national reconciliation. It's about total control, and about who gets to stay and who gets to come back, and on what terms. In the absence of any credible political opposition, and with more and more Afghans being deported or forced to return to the country, including the exiled members of the previous regime, the Taliban's Contact Commission will remain in business in the foreseeable future. However, reports of violation of 'general amnesty' by the Taliban members, particularly in the case of mid and low ranking former military personnel, have exposed the limitations to the implementation of the amnesty decree across the country.

Vishal Chandra
August 4, 2025
Monograph

Taliban’s “Contact Commission”: Three Years Later

Looking beyond high optics associated with the return (often the deportation) of members of the former Afghan Republic to the country, the Contact Commission set up by the Taliban regime in 2022 comes across as a strategic move to present itself as a conciliatory and legitimate state entity on one hand and undercut the support base of the fragmented exiled political opposition on the other. This is best manifest in the fact that the Taliban has opened a pathway for exiled political opposition and former civil and military personnel to return to the country but without yielding any political space or making any provision to integrate the returnees into its governing structures. The commission’s efforts are stymied by violations of the ‘general amnesty’ announced for members of the former regime, lack of employment avenues for the educated non-Taliban workforce, and the ban on higher education for girls and work opportunities for women. In such a scenario, the commission cannot bridge the divide between the regime and the exiled or returnee Afghans, unless the regime itself acts as a bridge connecting diverse ethnicities and identities that make up the Afghan Nation.