Understanding the Peoples Crisis and Governance in Afghanistan: Before and After the Taliban Takeover

Abstract

When viewed from an international standpoint, a country’s fight for survival is often mistaken as aggression or extremism. If we look back at the history of South Asia, this is a common trend that can be noticed. But standing in 2023, this trend has become a continuing nightmare for the people of Afghanistan trying to survive in a land of insurgency, conflict, poverty, and an overall lack of human rights. Afghanistan has a long and complicated history with the rest of the world, from the rough terrain cutting it off from the mainland’s or tribal clashes that have not been resolved in a century: there is nothing simple about the crisis of this place. In a post-Cold War world, where the bipolar world of the US and the Soviet Union clashed for control of this area, tensions mounted on the country and its people like never before. Everything that followed, has brought Afghanistan to the brink of its worst humanitarian and political crisis in history. As the long-drawn-out conflict with the US concluded in 2021, the Taliban took over the governance of the country, and reestablished “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”. Today, the place has been left marked by decades of internal conflict, and a constant threat of terrorist activities, and lost its status as a free nation. What remains more concerning is how the people of the nation are dealing with this change and what they look forward to in the future. Is it time for Afghanistan to stand up against the extremist government of the Taliban? Or is it finally time to accept defeat and find ways to survive in a nation ruled by guns and bombs? Keywords: Afghanistan, Governance, Taliban Takeover, South Asia, Humanitarian Crisis