The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate. Is the international community helping or exacerbating the situation? Since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Western countries have faced a dilemma as they seek to harmonise contradictory objectives: restricting the Taliban’s finances and access to the international financial system via the implementation of existing sanctions regimes; and maintaining financial channels […]

This study sheds light on the factors that may influence violent extremism tendencies in Afghanistan. This Emerging Insights paper draws mainly from a 2019 survey in the Afghan cities of Kabul and Jalalabad to discuss attitudes towards extremist violence in urban Afghanistan and the role of conservative, non-violent and/or anti-state extremist milieus in the emergence of violent extremism. The survey […]

The 20th Party Congress has closed, with Xi Jinping’s grip on power even tighter than expected. After years of speculation, the 20th Party Congress has closed, and the new Central Committee elected the members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the men who will rule China for the next five years. Xi Jinping, of course, is the ultimate ruler; he is […]

A police vehicle stopped in a shopping area in the Chah-Baba neighbourhood of Mazar-e-Sharif on March 3. Five Taliban gunmen got out of the car and dropped two bodies wrapped in black cloth on the road. “Control your women or else this will be their fate,” the commander told bystanders. Mohammad was an eyewitness. “They dumped the bodies near a […]

The dialogue format on Afghanistan, known as the extended Troika, may be reformed into a ‘five’, with India and Iran participating instead of the US, Russian Security Council Deputy Secretary Alexander Venediktov told state news agency TASS. He said in the past the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry held talks with Washington and Afghanistan “in the bilateral format as well as […]

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, deputy foreign minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, on Tuesday called on countries to play an active role in ensuring peace and security in Afghanistan, and in the development of its economy. Stanikzai made the remarks during a ceremony to inaugurate a new power supply network at Balkh airport. “As Afghans played a key role […]

Cash-reliant Afghanistan is set to get new banknotes, that will be printed in Europe, as those in circulation crumble and disintegrate, the US State Department’s Spokesman Ned Price confirmed Wednesday. Price said at a press conference in Washington that two transactions to pay to print Afghani banknotes has been facilitated by the US. “These two transactions have been underway for […]

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Riyadh on Monday ahead of the sixth edition of the Future Investment Initiative. He was received at King Khalid International Airport by the deputy governor of Riyadh region Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki, and Pakistan’s ambassador to the Kingdom Ameer Khurram Rathore. Earlier, […]

How can the somnolent Congress be revved up? Now that the Congress party in India has overwhelmingly elected Mallikajun Kharge, the first “non-Gandhi” as its President, the question as to whether the 80-year old party veteran and seasoned warhorse will be able to awaken the 137-year old sleeping giant to be a threat to the dominance of the BJP led […]

On October 10, 2022, the son of a local peace committee member was shot dead by unidentified terrorists in the Waliabad area of Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). In a separate incident, on the same day, unidentified terrorists attacked a school van in the Charbagh area of Swat District, killing the driver and injuring two students. On October 9, 2022, […]