Afghanistan After the Taliban: Building the Road to Democracy
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, the nature of their rule is no longer in doubt. Systematic repression, gender apartheid, the erasure of minorities, and the absolute rejection of political pluralism have defined their regime. The central question facing Afghanistan is no longer whether the Taliban will moderate, but what comes next. ( Taliban fighters in a military parade with U.S. weapons and U.S. armored vehicles shortly after the U.S. military left Afghanistan in August 2021.) Afghanistan cannot remain indefinitely trapped between an authoritarian regime consolidating control and an international community resigned to mere crisis management. Nor is the existence of armed resistance alone a sufficient alternative. Groups like the National Resistance Front (NRF), the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), and the Afghan United Front (AUF) have proven that Taliban control is not uncontested—as evidenced by sustained operations in Badakhshan and across the north. Yet, the resis...
