Webinar held on emergence of Taliban rule in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: Speakers at a webinar on Wednesday discussed the evolution of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the question of whether the country would secure recognition from the United States under its new regime.

The webinar was organised by the Department of International Relations, University of Peshawar, under its student body International Relations Students Association (IRSA), under the supervision of department’s chairman Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi. MPhil and PhD scholars as well as BS students from different departments of University of Peshawar participated in the event.

The opening remarks were given by Dr Syed Hussain Shaheed Soherwordi. Later, the first guest speaker Dr Stuart J. Kaufman. professor Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Delaware, Newark, United States, delivered a PowerPoint presentation on "US Perspectives on the Withdrawal from Afghanistan”.

He discussed the US mistakes committed in Afghanistan in the post 9/11 scenario in comparison with the contemporaneous state of affairs. Recounting the events from 2002, he enlisted some mistakes as lack of a peace agreement with the Taliban in 2002, misguided aid, and poor targeting strategies killing civilians.

However, the shared responsibilities were attributed to a convalescence of factors of the Afghanistan warlords, corruption, ethnic conflict, and Pakistan's role. Wrapping up his presentation, he concluded that the US withdrawal was the right decision for both the US and Afghanistan.

The second speaker Dr Karl Kaltenthaler, Director of the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies and a professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Akron, Ohio, United States enlightened the audience with his discussion on “The Taliban’s Return to Power: The Stakes for the United States”.

He scaled the factors affecting US decision to not recognise the Taliban regime at present and in the foreseeable future as, the entanglement of Taliban and Al Qaeda, the presence of designated terrorists among government ranks of the Taliban, the fallacy of the Taliban 2.0, and the public opinion in the United States.

The significance of the said recognition lies in the flow of aid complexes from the US to the Afghan people, which have to go through the Taliban to get to them. He emphasized the shift in US foreign policy priority list from Afghanistan to the Great Power competition among the US, China, and resurgent Russia. Any significance lent to this region and Afghanistan in particular would be at the behest of the Great Power competition driving international relations in the current world order.