Afghan Policy Research Articles

Foreign Policy of Regional Powers towards Afghanistan

This paper attempts to investigate the Afghan policies of the regional powers after 2021 when the Taliban came to power. After coming to power in 2021, the Taliban abolished the previous government and decided to build their own. The whole world had to start their relationship with Afghanistan once again. As we know the geostrategic location of Afghanistan compels the regional and neighboring countries to keep their interaction intact. We have regional powers like China, Russia, and India having the world's top economies and larger influence both in the world and the region. This paper thus aims to understand their foreign policies towards Afghanistan after 2021. The paper argues that these states have stakes in Afghanistan, due to its strategic location and natural resources. These states are lured to be involved in Afghanistan without considering what the internal situation in Afghanistan is. It is either due to the geo-strategic location of Afghanistan or the natural resources or other economic potential which compel these states to remain in relation with any government in power.

Regional Development Policies in Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries: A Comparative Analysis

This essay explores the regional development policies applied in Afghanistan and its neighboring countries using a comparative qualitative analysis method. It focuses on infrastructure development, human capital investment, regional integration, and technological innovation policies. It compares development policies in China, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan highlighting key projects which have fostered regional connectivity and economic growth. By comparing these policies, the essay evaluates how these initiatives have contributed to reducing regional disparities. This study aims to provide insights into how regional development policies can address Afghanistan’s socio-economic disparities and promote sustainable development. Despite notable successes, the research identifies ongoing challenges such as political instability, limited financial resources, and weak regional cooperation that impede further progress in Afghanistan. Key policy recommendations for Afghanistan include enhancing regional cooperation, investing in technological infrastructure, and developing human capital to achieve sustainable growth and stability.

A Critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Obama and Trump’s speeches on Afghan policy

A Critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Obama and Trump’s speeches on Afghan policy

The Impact of the Cold War on the Afghan Society

The article is devoted to the policies of the global players of the Cold War using the example of Afghanistan. Noting the features of the Afghan policy of the Cold War, the author highlighted the key content of the very concept of the Cold War, political events in Afghanistan, internal and external challenges, ethnic problems and the problem of women during the Cold War. The influence of geopolitical processes on the development, internal and external interests of Afghan society in the 20th century, the social, economic and political consequences of the Cold War, features of the development of the political system and political culture of Afghanistan, ethnic problems in Afghan public discourse, etc. are considered. The author concludes that “The Cold War of the superpowers had a direct impact on internal political developments in Afghanistan, where parties and public organizations emerged as political structures with secular or Islamic ideology. The author comes to the conclusion that the internal political unity of Afghan society was not ensured for the reason that the Afghan elite was unable to form an ideology expressing national unity, and its individual parts preferred to serve the interests of one or another player without supporting the national interests of Afghanistan.The article was prepared according to the International Academic Mobility Program, organized by the National Research Institute of the Communications Development (Moscow) for young scientists from foreign countries.

Afghanistan in US-Iran Relations in the 1990s

In the rising new world order, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, confrontation and partnership alternated between US and Iranian policies on the situation in Afghanistan. It was viewed by both US and Iranian governments as a tricky, delicate and potentially turbulent zone of international relations. The present study examines the relations between the administrations of G. Bush, Bill Clinton and G. W. Bush and Iranian Presidents Rafsanjani and Khatami during the Afghan Civil War, the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent operation to overthrow the Taliban. In the light of the American troops withdrawal from Afghanistan announced by the US State Department earlier this year, the article offers a review of the US and Iranian policies in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

The view on the Situation in Afghanistan in the Chinese Media within China’s National Security

The withdrawal of US troops and the rapid takeover of Kabul by the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) in Afghanistan in 2021 shocked the world community. Even though the PRC actively opposes international terrorism, which the Taliban movement (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) is accused of supporting, it has become one of the few countries that have begun to cooperate with the new Afghan regime. In the light of these events, China’s view of the situation in Afghanistan is puzzling, in particular, we are interested in how these events are reported in Chinese press. In this paper, first, we trace the evolution of the PRC’s official position on Afghanistan, and then, using frame analysis, analyze the coverage of the events of 2021 in the PRC by focusing on three authoritative newspapers, Chinese language versions of “People’s Daily”, “Global Times”, and “The Paper”. Our study demonstrates that the Chinese press supports China’s foreign policy in general and its policy in Afghanistan in particular. Stability in Afghanistan and cooperation with the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) on issues of Uighur separatism are important for China’s national security. In the Chinese media, the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) are not presented as accomplices of terrorism, which China is fighting within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization but are described as representatives of the Afghan people who aim to restore the security and stability in the country. When discussing the Taliban (recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) takeover in the Chinese media, the focus is often not on the crimes of the new regime - repression, abuse of power, restriction of rights, but on shortcoming of the US policy. The latter reflects an important discursive practice in the Chinese media, “othering” the United States.

Imperatives of soviet afghan policy and Russia

After the withdrawal of the US militaries, Russia has an opportunity to launch a policy towards Afghanistan from tabula rasa, because many of the imperatives of Soviet Afghan policy were leveled out or lost their significance. The new Afghan leadership is giving Moscow appropriate signs, remembering the long past of good neighborliness. But when formulating a new policy, both the miscalculations of Soviet policy towards this country and its strengths must be taken into account.

Investigating Criminal Policy with the Delmas-Marty Approach

The policy-making process in the field of criminal law is a highly complex process. Most governments have reacted to criminal phenomena based on their own interests. The response to criminal events is closely related to the culture and norms prevailing in each country. Criminal policy, which essentially examines the reactions of governing bodies to criminal phenomena, can contribute to the objectives of criminal law, namely the rehabilitation and education of criminals and the provision of justice in society. This research raises questions about what criminal policy is, which pillars it is based on, and which model of criminal policy can be suitable for addressing criminal events. The assumption is that criminal policy refers to the government or governing body's response to criminal phenomena. The pillars of criminal policy include legislative criminal policy, judicial criminal policy, executive criminal policy, and participatory criminal policy, and the best model of criminal policy is the liberal model. The main objective of this research is to achieve a unified and accepted concept of criminal policy, and its secondary objectives involve identifying the pillars and models of criminal policy. In this study, the analytical-descriptive method is employed, and library resources, scientific articles, and reputable journals are utilized. The most significant obstacle faced in this research is the lack of resources in the field of criminal policy in Afghanistan.

Mapping Agricultural Land in Afghanistan’s Opium Provinces Using a Generalised Deep Learning Model and Medium Resolution Satellite Imagery

Understanding the relationship between land use and opium production is critical for monitoring the dynamics of poppy cultivation and developing an effective counter narcotics policy in Afghanistan. However, mapping agricultural land accurately and rapidly is challenging, as current methods require resource-intensive and time consuming manual image-interpretation. Deep convolutional neural nets have been shown to greatly reduce the manual effort in mapping agriculture from satellite imagery but require large amounts of densely labelled training data for model training. Here we develop a generalised model using past images and labels from different medium resolution satellite sensors for fully automatic agricultural land classification using the latest medium resolution satellite imagery. The model (FCN-8) is first trained on Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) satellite images from 2007 to 2009. The effect of shape, texture and spectral features on model performance are investigated along with normalisation in order to standardise input medium resolution imagery from DMC, Landsat-5, Landsat-8, and Sentinel-2 for transfer learning between sensors and across years. Textural features make the highest contribution to overall accuracy (∼73%) while the effect of shape is minimal. The model accuracy on new images, with no additional training, is comparable to visual image interpretation (overall > 95%, user accuracy > 91%, producer accuracy > 85%, and frequency weighted intersection over union > 67%). The model is robust and was used to map agriculture from archive images (1990) and can be used in other areas with similar landscapes. The model can be updated by fine tuning using smaller, sparsely labelled datasets in the future. The generalised model was used to map the change in agricultural area in Helmand Province, showing the expansion of agricultural land into former desert areas. Training generalised deep learning models using data from both new and long-term EO programmes, with little or no requirement for fine tuning, is an exciting opportunity for automating image classification across datasets and through time that can improve our understanding of the environment.

Navigating the Aftermath: U.S. Policy in Afghanistan Following Troop Withdrawal

The withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in the middle of 2021 has put at stake and turned to shock the world community. The world, which was fighting COVID-19, faced more concerns about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. It became not only a concern of Middle East countries, but it raised questions in Europe too. While the Middle East countries were anxious about security issues in the region, Europe was anxious about the mass migration of refugees. Russia, the country which is crucially interested in stable peace in the Middle East, and China, which is cooperating with Afghanistan in the economic sector, began negotiations with the Taliban government to stabilize the situation peacefully after the withdrawal of American troops.The article analyzes the changes in US policy in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of troops in August 2021. The withdrawal of the US military contingent from Afghanistan has changed the balance of power in Central Asia, which, on the one hand, creates new risks to international security, and on the other hand, opens up new opportunities for interested players in the international arena in the region. In the new conditions, the United States is forced to restructure its policy towards Afghanistan and change its security strategy in accordance with the new balance of forces in the region. The findings of the study relate to the actual interests of the United States in the field of security in Afghanistan and in the Central Asian region as a whole.

Four Decades of India’s Afghan Policy: Still Looking for a Direction

Since the last four decades, India’s Afghan policy continues to be in a state of flux. New Delhi has attempted to provide some sort of consistency and continuity to its Afghan policy in the last forty years by collaborating twice with both the Super powers, but unfortunately both the times it could not yield the desired outcomes except leaving it in lurch. In 1980s, India has to compromise with her policy of Non-alignment and support Soviet intervention to remain an active player in Afghanistan. But this Indian policy could not be sustained for long because of Soviet Union’s withdrawal in 1989 and the subsequent assassination of President Najibullah and the ensuing chaos as Afghanistan fell into the hands of the hard-line Islamist forces. On Taliban’s assumption of power in 1996, New Delhi lost whatever little footprint it had in Afghanistan. India could not gain much by supporting the Ahmed Shah Masood led Northern Alliance which was fighting against the Taliban. In 2001, once again the Indian government got the opportunity to restore its age old civilizational ties with Afghanistan when the US and its allies militarily intervened to oust the Taliban from power. India seized the opportunity and actively supported post-2001 Bonn agreement and subsequent efforts made by the US and the international community to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan. During the period, New Delhi followed a ‘Soft power’ approach and desisted from any kind of political or military involvement in the peace process. She invested more than 3 billion dollars in developing the vital infrastructure and other developmental projects. But the sudden US withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Doha deal and the subsequent recapture of political power by the Taliban forcing the Ghani administration to flee the country once again left India’s Afghan policy in quandary.

Examining the Implementation of Girls' Education Policy in Afghanistan

This research examines the implementation of educational policies with a special focus on girls' education policy in Afghanistan. Education is a fundamental right and a driving force behind societal and personal advancement. Despite the existence of educational policies, many nations, like Afghanistan, still struggle with their proper implementation. This study aims to pinpoint the fundamental elements that influence how policies are carried out in Afghanistan and investigate the difficulties encountered when doing so, with a particular emphasis on the education of girls. This study makes recommendations to improve policy implementation procedures in Afghanistan through the use of a qualitative case study and examination of official documents, reports, and literature. It also aims to uncover the underlying drivers and causes of the implementation gap. Understanding the challenges and obstacles encountered in Afghanistan when putting educational policies into practice can advance knowledge of the implementation of policies in related fields and increase the efficacy of Afghan policies promoting gender equality and access to education. In general, the results obtained from this research show that the implementation of girls' education policy in Afghanistan has faced significant challenges due to factors such as limited infrastructure, insufficient resources, security threats, cultural norms and gender violence. In addition to recommendations such as strengthening cooperation, allocating resources, increasing teacher training, challenging cultural norms, and ensuring the coordination of related institutions. These suggestions can significantly improve policy implementation and promote gender equality in education in Afghanistan.

A Long War and a Short Temper: A Bureaucratic Politics Analysis of the Trump Administration’s Policy in Afghanistan

ABSTRACT During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made clear that he loathed the nation-building missions that previous administrations had initiated and continued; chief among them was the then 15-year-old war in Afghanistan. Despite his oft-stated desire to end the war, during his first year in office, Trump decided to maintain the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and added thousands more soldiers to the conflict. Later in his term, the U.S. signed a peace agreement with the Taliban and began a phased withdrawal in 2020. However, when Trump left office in January 2021, 2,500 U.S. soldiers remained in Afghanistan. To explain the gap between the President’s clearly stated preferences and U.S. policy, I employ the bureaucratic politics model of foreign policy analysis. I examine two crucial intra-administration debates over the future of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The first occurred in 2017 when the new President ordered a comprehensive review of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. The second covers the period from 2018–2020, when the Administration pivoted to seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict and debated the pace of U.S. withdrawals. In both instances, I find that members of the President’s national security team successfully persuaded the President that the political and strategic risks of a total withdrawal from Afghanistan were prohibitively high.

The Turks in the Land of Afghans: History, Politics, and Relationships

The Turks in the Land of Afghans:History, Politics, and Relationships Mohammed Alrmizan (bio) Introduction Turkish foreign policy in Afghanistan dates to the changing dynamics in the Ottoman Empire's foreign policy, particularly following the Russian Empire's wars and the support of the British Empire during the middle of the nineteenth century.1 The Ottoman Empire then began communicating with the Durrani and Barakzai dynasties in Afghanistan through different missions from Istanbul and Mumbai to Kabul. Ottoman foreign policy did not establish diplomatic relations, although it had previously had some positive communication with the rulers of Afghanistan. Due to increasing weaknesses in its colonies during the Great War and the rise of the İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress, CUP), the Ottoman Empire ended in collapse. Then, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rose to power and declared the Republic of Turkey in 1923.2 Turkish foreign policy toward Afghanistan developed through different periods: first, in the Kingdom of Afghanistan until the 1950s, then in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the first two decades of the twenty-first century (2004-2021), [End Page 41] and currently in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan beginning from August 2021 when Taliban forces took over Kabul.3 In parallel, Turkish foreign policy toward Afghanistan, although starting with Atatürk, could not escape the impacts of the country's domestic politics and challenges in previous decades, for instance, the successful coups in 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997. Furthermore, relations were affected by Turkey's socioeconomic and political developments from the 1960s until the 1990s, including anti-Communism and the rise of Islamism. Such political instabilities, which were either caused by changes in power or by the rise of and conflict between different ideologies, significantly impacted the aims and priorities behind Turkey's foreign policy. Turkish foreign policy in Afghanistan has seen critical developments following the so-called war on terror, including the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and later that of NATO in 2003, and in Turkish politics the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party, Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP).4 The Erdoğan era has seen proactive, far-reaching, and noticeable developments in Turkey's domestic politics and foreign policy in particular. Turkish foreign policy has taken a different path from that followed from the time of Atatürk's predecessors until Turgut Özal. The rise of Erdoğan and his party has undeniably impacted Turkish foreign policy, especially Turkish-Afghan relations. In his era, Turkey has participated in NATO missions in Afghanistan and has initiated different strategies cementing Turkish-Afghan relations with the various regimes in Afghanistan, which dramatically increased Turkey's role in the country. This came to include overseeing hundreds of humanitarian and developmental assistance projects in Kabul, Mazar-i Sharif, Herat, and other cities, which made Turkey one of the most active foreign powers in Afghanistan.5 This becomes even more interesting when considering the end of the U.S. and NATO military missions and the subsequent departure of foreign forces in late 2021, which allowed the Taliban to take power. This once again made Afghanistan an essential topic in international relations and foreign policymaking in many countries, including Turkey. This article, based mainly on secondary resources and qualitative analysis, [End Page 42] aims to explore Turkish foreign policy in Afghanistan historically, politically, and operationally and is divided into four sections. The first provides a brief account of the history of Afghanistan. The second sheds light on the earlier developments of Turkish foreign policy in Afghanistan, first through the Ottoman Empire and later in the Republic of Turkey through Atatürk and subsequent eras, focusing on the Erdoğan era. Third, the article then investigates the Turkish state and the Taliban from historical, political, and intellectual perspectives, showing the potential similarities and differences between the two entities, and the Turkish foreign policy with a specific focus on the era of Erdoğan in Turkey and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The fourth and final section examines the motivations behind Turkish foreign policy in Afghanistan. A Short History of Afghanistan What is known today as the Islamic...

The state, identity politics and ethnic boundaries in Afghanistan: The case of Sunni Hazaras

AbstractIn recent years, a growing number of activists in Afghanistan have been proactively self‐identifying as Sunni Hazaras. The trend demonstrates an important shift that illuminates how ethnic boundaries may change and evolve in response to elite politics and state policies in Afghanistan. Many of the communities that are the subjects of new collective identity discourses share important commonalities, including shared belief in a common origin, with the Shi'a Hazaras. However, because the Shi'a Hazaras were persecuted and marginalised under successive regimes in Afghanistan, it was not common for these communities to publicly identify as Hazaras. Instead, they tended to identify with local identity categories such as those based on places of origin or as Tajiks because, like most Tajiks, they speak Dari and practise Sunni Islam. This article contributes to understanding these dynamics through a detailed examination of the National Council of the Sunni Hazaras of Afghanistan. Taking a social constructivist approach, it develops an argument that emphasises an interactive process between state formation and top‐down programmes of national identity construction and bottom‐up resistance by groups that appropriate and articulate ethnic and other forms of ethnic identities to demand political representation and symbolic recognition.

Analyzing the Democratic Peace Theory on US-French Foreign Policy in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria in 21st Century.

The main thrust of this paper is to critically analyze the relevance and potential of Democratic Peace Theory in promoting peace, security and stability in international relations. United States of America and France as the cradles of contemporary democracy, in this paper shall be used as models of democratic peace theory. This analysis and evaluation is merely based on designated secondary material or paper review. France and America have analogous foreign policy which for bilateral or multilateral relations demand democracy, rule of law, accountability, transparency, decentralization, devolution of power and respect for human rights in recipient regimes. The study wants to comprehend how French and American foreign policies in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria complied with tenants of democratic peace theory. Contemporary academic contributions are lacking consensus on whether French and American foreign policies are idealist (pro-democratic) or realist (pro-authoritarian) in international relations. The formation of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which the two are the most influential members is widely debatable between realists and idealists. The organization has very dreadful since Cold War and particularly promotes the self-interests of the Allies, the Capitalist world. In light of fighting dictatorship and restore democracy, America and France are highly criticized for promoting internal political instability, gross human abuse, environmental insecurity, endless fighting and infrastructural destruction.

Assessing the Effects of Afghanistan's Situation on China's National Interests and Regional Stability

: The US and NATO's August 2021 departure from Afghanistan have resulted in significant security risks that now confront China and its Western neighborhood. This article examines two threats to China's national interest, both within its western province and its neighboring regions. The first threat pertains to China's restive Western province of Xinjiang bordering Afghanistan and is characterized by its unrest and instability, specifically due to the presence of separatist movements and acts of terrorism. The second concern involves the implications for China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Central and South Asia, thereby presenting potential economic threats. This paper conducts a comprehensive study to explore the context and significance of China's Afghan policy and aims to highlight China's role in safeguarding its national interests and promoting regional stability

Pakistan – Taliban: A Paradoxical Relationship

This article analyses the complex relationship between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban for over twenty years. The unresolved issue of recognition of the Durand Line as the Afghan-Pakistan state border has had a negative impact on the relationship. The author notes the divided nature of Pashtun society on both sides of the Durand Line and Islamabad's desire for a loyal government in Kabul that would not be strongly influenced by Pashtun nationalist ideas. The paper explores Pakistan's policy of combining support for the Taliban with US-Pakistan relations in an asymmetric alliance. The aim of the article is to show the extent to which Islamabad's policy of trying to please both the US and Afghanistan has been successful. The author concludes that Pakistan's Afghan policy is characterised by a lack of achievement on major bilateral issues. After the Taliban came to power, Islamabad's influence over Kabul diminished, the Pakistanis failed to persuade the Taliban to comply with international requirements in governing the country, the Pak-Afghan border was not recognised, Afghanistan's contacts with India intensified, Pakistan ceased to be an indispensable partner for the US in the Afghan track and Islamabad failed to persuade Kabul to withdraw support from the extremist Taliban Movement of Pakistan. In spite of all the setbacks, Islamabad still views its former Afghan allies as the primary means of maintaining Pakistan's position in Afghanistan, hoping to convince the Afghan Taliban to accept the changed international realities.

ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF NAFTULA ARONOVICH KHALFIN: (SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY IN 1971–1987). PART II

This work continues a series of articles dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Soviet historian and orientalist Naftula Aronovich Khalfin. This biobibliographic essay presents an analysis of his activities in 1957–1971, that is, after his appointment as head of the Sector of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The article shows information about the Department of Historical and Cultural Problems of the Soviet East, which included the Sector of Historical and Cultural Relations between the Soviet and Foreign East in Modern and Contemporary Times. Taking into account the profile of the new division, the scientific interests of N. A. Khalfin during this period shifted from the problems of colonialism again to the issues of Central Asia and Afghanistan, which he began to deal with in Tashkent. Since the 1970s, he has published a number of monographs and a large number of articles on various aspects of the history of this region, and continued to write reviews on Soviet and foreign publications. Khalfin made a significant contribution to the study of the biography of the outstanding Russian orientalist N. V. Khanykov. The Afghan theme, to which many works of N. A. Khalfin, including those of a popular nature, were devoted, becomes especially relevant after 1979. During this period, Khalfin, in addition to his scientific work, became known as the author of historical narratives or documentary fiction about the struggle of the Afghan people against the British. Many of his works are translated into English and the languages of Afghanistan. He also published works on the famous figure of «British colonialism» G. Curzon. In addition to his works, Khalfin carried out a lot of work on the publication of the works of the series «Central Asia in the Sources and Materials of the 19th and Early 20th Century», in which he acted as an editor, author of prefaces and notes, as well as the series «USSR and the countries of the East». Being one of the most important researchers of British policy in Central Asia and Afghanistan, Khalfin participated in international scientific joint meetings.

India’s Afghanistan policy: a quest for strategic space post the US withdrawal

This paper attempts to analyse India’s foreign policy towards Afghanistan in the post-9/11 era. While the 9/11 attacks marked the beginning of a new epoch in world politics, the ensuing US-led military intervention in Afghanistan offered India a much needed opportunity to re-establish diplomatic ties with Kabul. Since then, India has remained cautious in its approach toward Afghanistan by relying more on assistance-driven foreign policy measures rather than on engaging militarily in the war-torn country. However, the question remains as to what extent India has been able to create strategic space for itself in Afghanistan, given the fact that India had to shut down its embassy and consulates in Afghanistan in August 2021 when the Taliban regained control of the country? Or, has India’s policy been too reliant on soft power that India failed to capitalise on the opportunity created by the overthrow of the Taliban regime in late 2001?