The essay examines the lessons from the international intervention in Afghanistan, highlighting the failures of externally imposed state building, including neglect of local governance structures and prioritizing donor interests over Afghan ownership. The international peace- and state-building intervention in Afghanistan, which spanned two decades, culminated in the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021, leading to the Taliban’s swift resurgence. This event has sparked a critical examination of the strategies employed by NATO and allied nations during their engagement in Afghanistan. This essay aims to distill seven key lessons from this intervention, emphasizing the need for future peacebuilders to adapt their approaches to better align with local contexts and realities. The analysis highlights the failures of liberal peacebuilding, the importance of local ownership, the necessity of effective and legitimate institutions, and the detrimental impact of corruption. Furthermore, it underscores the significance of coherence among international actors and the need for a nuanced understanding of regional dynamics. By reflecting on these lessons, the essay seeks to provide actionable insights for future international interventions in fragile and conflict-affected states.

This paper traces how geological surveys and prospecting across two centuries shaped Afghanistan’s enduring characterization as a mineral-rich “El Dorado.” By investigating the shift in survey methods from comprehensive terrestrial to aerial reconnaissance, I show how geological knowledge production served purposes far beyond imperial resource identification and extraction. Drawing from historical and ethnographic research, including insights from a current emerald mine operator, I uncover how precious stones’ physical properties and circulating narratives about hidden riches propelled—and continue to propel—a vast network of individuals into mining enterprises: from state authorities and local powerbrokers to foreign geologists, mineral collectors, and international aid organizations. The result is the creation of new narratives about extractable wealth that interweave scientific practices and global market dynamics to transcend conventional periodization such as pre-Soviet, Soviet, and United States. These narratives have emerged from and reinforced asymmetrical relationships in both labor and expertise, ultimately positioning Afghan participants precariously within global mineral markets, made riskier still in times of conflict.

Reflecting on the Islamic law–secular law balance in past Afghan constitutional regimes and contemporary Taliban rule, this paper contextualizes Afghan constitutionalism in a broad spectrum of constitutional traditions present in other Islamic law states (ILS). Though the Taliban are reticent about their plans for a constitutionally-anchored society, similar to processes elsewhere, the organization’s previous drafters relied upon the country’s previous constitutional regimes and on other countries’ constitutions. Though necessarily aspirational, we argue that taking lessons from the Taliban’s history, Afghanistan’s own rich constitutional tradition, and contemporary ILS’ approaches—combined with international cooperation—there may be a way forward for a Taliban-led Afghanistan: one grounded in a stable constitutional order that protects the dignity of Afghan people. But since the Taliban regained control of the country, its people have endured extreme social and economic hardship. The ongoing crisis cannot be ignored. This paper does not seek to disregard or minimize Taliban-induced atrocities; rather, by exploring the history of Afghan constitutionalism through a different lens, it looks to provide a building block for a future, more stable solution. While the existing scholarship focuses mainly on the current Taliban practices, we examine past Afghan constitutions and propose the potential for specific legal solutions in the context of the country’s robust constitutional tradition. We rely on qualitative and quantitative data in analyzing the nexus between secular law and Islam-based constitutional language, highlighting certain trends and patterns. In an important way, therefore, our research places the Taliban efforts at constructing a legal system as part of an evolving—however jolted by the Taliban—constitutional process.

The Taliban’s forceful control of Kabul resulted in severe criticism by the world community and has consequently raised a pertinent question about its recognition in international law. Though a few countries publicly denied recognition to the Taliban government, many countries have (re)-started engaging with it by concluding bilateral treaties and (re)-opening embassies without recognition. Besides, countries have put several “conditions”, such as respect for human rights and a promise to form an “inclusive government”, before they will recognize the Taliban government. This note maps out these “conditions”, along with different proposals states have proposed concerning recognizing the Taliban government. It identifies the possible legal consequences of these “proposals” for the institution of recognition of government in international law. The note finally argues that though a recognition decision is largely political, it should nevertheless be regulated by international law to the extent that it would help avoid adverse international legal consequences.

Does the situation in Afghanistan amount to persecution due to the accumulation of repressive measures enacted against women and is it sufficient that women are affected by such measures merely on the basis of their gender? While these two questions remain in front of the Court of Justice of the EU, several EU member states have moved to grant asylum to women and girls from Afghanistan on general risks of gender-based persecution. This dynamism in asylum regulations across the EU has occurred alongside renewed discussions around gender-based persecution and gender apartheid in international criminal law in light of the ongoing process for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty. In this article, I put these developments into conversation through case study method and legal-institutional analysis, and argue that the historical link between international refugee law and international criminal law provides a space to envision an integrated system of protection around gender-related claims. To this end, I offer three outlooks for establishing general risks of gender-based persecution in international refugee law and the relationship between gender apartheid and asylum.

This article explores the geographical imagination of diasporic activists from Afghanistan. It examines the significance of the historic-geographic region of Khorasan for their attempts to re-imagine Afghanistan and its place in the region and wider world. The article documents ethnographically the forms of intellectual exchange in which these intellectual-activists participate, and their modes of materializing the geographical imagination of Khorasan in everyday life. Rather than analyzing their geographical imagination solely through the lens of ethnicity, it treats it as reflecting the activists’ underlying yearning for sovereign agency and as an attempt to forge politically recognizable subjects capable of action.

This position paper highlights the dire impacts of environmental and household air pollution, which were responsible for 6.7 million deaths globally in 2019. These deaths occurred predominantly in low- and middle-income countries, with Afghanistan reporting the highest age-adjusted mortality rate. The situation worsens during large-scale disasters like earthquakes, which release more pollutants into the air, exacerbating health risks and leading to severe conditions such as pulmonary diseases. Because political factors may hinder foreign NGOs and similar organizations from providing direct support, the frequent occurrence of earthquakes in Afghanistan underscores the critical need for emergency response training for local residents. Consequently, it is essential to provide ERT training, including the proper use of protective equipment, to local populations as well as disseminating risk communication through online technologies and other appropriate means.

In parts of southern and western Asia, as elsewhere, the cannon once served as one of the most dramatic tools in the inventories of state executioners. The practice of ‘blowing from a gun’, by which the condemned was bound to the front of a cannon and quite literally blown to pieces, was most infamously employed in British India and the Princely States, and the vast majority of English-language scholarship focuses on these regions. However, blowing from guns was commonplace in several other contemporary states, and the British use of the practice has rarely been situated in this context. The tactic was considered especially useful in Persia and Afghanistan, where weak governance, rebellion, and rampant banditry all threatened the legitimacy of the nascent state in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article presents a history of the practice of execution by cannon in southern and western Asia, positioning it within the existing literature on public executions in the context of military and civilian justice. In doing so, the article seeks to situate the British use of the tactic within a broader regional practice, arguing that, whilst the British—following the Mughal tradition—used execution by cannon primarily in maintaining military discipline, states such as Persia and Afghanistan instead employed the practice largely in the civilian context. This article also provides a brief technical review of the practice, drawing upon numerous primary sources to examine execution by cannon within the Mughal empire, British India, Persia, and Afghanistan.

While women's political inclusion is central to international conflict resolution efforts, public attitudes in conflict states towards women's political inclusion remain understudied. We expect insecurity to depress support for female political leadership in conflicts where women's political inclusion is violently contested. Citizens wanting security through force prefer male leaders because of stereotypes privileging men's military prowess. However, citizens wanting security through reconciliation also favour men for fear that female leadership would provoke more violence. We assess these expectations with experimental and observational data from the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In the survey experiment, priming respondents to think about insecurity decreases support for female leadership, but only among women. In observational data, insecurity correlates with more polarized attitudes towards women's political representation in some regions and greater support for female leaders in others. Insecurity's impact on public support for female leadership in conflict states may be highly heterogeneous.