The United States is studying the strategic mistakes made in Afghanistan
American researcher: Washington needs to understand the "Taliban" in order to be able to change it
Children get their last lessons at a UNICEF school in Kabul.
■ EPA
Poverty is spreading and adding to the problems that Afghanistan suffers from.
■ A.F.B
picture
American researcher Dr. Qamar Al-Huda, visiting professor of international relations at the US Naval Academy, recounts in a report published by the American “National Interest” magazine his impressions of his recent visit to Afghanistan, where he conducted an interview with the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture in the Afghan government, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Regarding Qamar al-Huda's questions about the Taliban's rule and the international community's isolation of Afghanistan, Mujahid told him firmly, "Listen to me, this country has a long way to go before it witnesses a renaissance, but it will happen in front of the whole world... and you will see."
begging
Qamar al-Huda, who previously worked as a policy advisor in the US Secretary of State's Office for Religious and Global Affairs, says Mujahid's optimism is not discordant, as the government officials he interviewed were unanimous in their answers that the country was working towards better times.
But there was a consensus among those not close to the Taliban—teachers, lawyers, university students, and a few new civil society groups—about the future of Afghanistan.
“There are no job opportunities,” said a lawyer who was recently dismissed from the Ministry of Education.
And we don't have money.”
There are men, women and children begging in the streets who say they have not eaten for days.
Qamar Al-Huda says that a close friend of his was a researcher at the Institute for Conflict and Peace in Kabul, but the “Taliban” closed the institute because it knew that the US Agency for International Development and the US Institute of Peace supported it, and the “Taliban” believed that the work of the institute would present a negative image of Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, US policy experts have been trying to understand the strategic mistakes that were made in Afghanistan.
The newly formed Afghanistan War Commission will identify lessons learned from the US war in Afghanistan, seeking to understand the tensions between the civilian and military efforts, and how entrenched corruption stemming from state-building activities has contributed to cycles of corruption and mismanagement of the exit strategy from Afghanistan.
Transition from the past to the present
Yet Washington must move from the past to the present.
There is a need to focus on the Taliban's internal power dynamics: What governs their mindset?
What are the internal factions seeking to gain power?
And the different roles of the “Taliban” religious sect, “Deobandi”?
More important is how this information can be used as a means of shaping the development of the Taliban in the region.
Qamar Al-Huda says, “Increasing our knowledge of the internal dynamics of the Taliban, its divisions, and the complex factors that influence decision-making will not diminish the American commitment to women's and human rights.
But Washington will be in a better position to influence the Taliban and bring them closer to respecting, and possibly implementing, basic principles of democracy.
The movement's internal disagreements over inclusiveness, governance, international outreach to Western countries, and human rights are highly divided by the various branches of Deobandi thought, particularly with regard to the nuanced understandings reached during the war.
"Globally minded" thinkers believe that it is necessary to invest money provided by civil society in Afghanistan's economy and infrastructure, something diplomacy ultimately constrains.
please everyone
And among the fighters of the Haqqani Group in Afghanistan, there is intense pressure to implement the ideals for which they fought.
The Haqqani network used to make its own decisions on the battlefield, but they have recently expressed their frustration with the slow decision-making of the Shura Council in Kandahar.
The Taliban's balancing act is to please all factions at the table while not losing faith in global diplomacy.
The real power is represented by the Shura Council - it is the advisory body for political affairs - which includes senior Taliban leaders in Kandahar, where the current president, Hebatullah Akhundzada, is based.
The decision makers in Kandahar are mainly Pashtuns, but they also include members from the northern, central and western provinces.
In the background are Hamid Karzai, who served as president from 2004 to 2014, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former chief executive of Afghanistan.
Both meet regularly with the movement's leaders in Kabul and the Shura Council.
The priority is to strengthen the military force
On the other hand, there are Yaqub Haqqani and Abdul Qayyum Zakir, the acting defense minister, in the government, who give priority to strengthening the military force locally, and stress the importance of protecting Afghanistan's borders and identifying loyalists to the former regime, who are believed to be working directly with the resistance movement.
For Afghanistan, the rise of a Deobandi cleric and leader like Akhundzada to assume a prominent public role underscores the important link between religious scholars and political activists.
The United States needs to define a specific diplomatic strategy to deal with leaders like Akhundzadeh and Yaqoub.
In fact, the United States lags far behind regional players such as Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, and China.
And if the United States is truly interested in reducing the global threats from al-Qaeda and ISIS-K, then it would be perfectly wise to invest in a well-defined partnership with Taliban-led Afghanistan.
This will also result in Afghanistan being more likely to make progress in promoting shared values such as women's rights, the rule of law, freedom of expression, and minority rights.
In fact, the lack of communication and lack of religious experts hinders US diplomacy and political influence in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
In the conclusion of his report, Qamar Al-Huda says that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is paralyzed, due to the lack of experts in religious and foreign affairs, who can provide wise political guidance on religious-political activity, and insight into how the Taliban maneuver within social hierarchies.
Providing experts who can provide analysis of the differing interpretations of Sunni Hanafi Islam within Iran's power structures will improve the State Department's analysis, especially of how the Taliban thinks about governance, finances, law enforcement, global outreach, and policy-making dynamics.
• Since the "Taliban" took control of Kabul in August 2021, US policy experts have been trying to understand the strategic mistakes that were made in Afghanistan.
• Washington must move from the past to the present. There is a need to focus on the Taliban's internal power dynamics.
• If the United States is truly interested in reducing the global threats from al-Qaeda and ISIS-K, then it would be very wise to invest in a very specific partnership with Taliban-led Afghanistan.
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