The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After the Americans Left

This chatty and deeply informed account covers the negotiations that led to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, the makeup of the new regime, its religious ideology, its foreign relations, and the many problems it faces now that it governs. The regime is split along numerous fault lines—regional, ethnic, generational, and factional—and is subject to interference from numerous regional powers, including China, India, Iran, Qatar, Russia, and Turkey. The most influential outside power is Pakistan, but relations are strained because of Kabul’s tacit support for a militant group that has routinely struck targets within Pakistan in recent years. Most leaders in the new regime are politicians with clerical titles, not serious religious thinkers, and Abbas describes internal factional dynamics as “reminiscent of the Italian mafia.” Political fissures are exacerbated by the regime’s economic and financial problems and by the challenge from the Islamic State’s franchise in the country. Abbas sees fluidity beneath the regime’s hard carapace and optimistically suggests that a Western policy of engagement could push the Taliban toward pragmatism. But he does not say whether it would be possible for the regime to relax its harsh policies on the crucial issue of women’s rights.