There are many reasons to be wary of the returned Taliban, but given our investment in the region the Australian government will have to find a way to deal with it.
The caretaker leader for Afghanistan represents a compromise candidate for Taliban factions, but his reactionary past has drawn concern over the fate of minority and women’s rights.
As Friday’s attack by an ISIS sympathiser in a New Zealand supermarket shows, ISIS’s extreme ideology still holds strong appeal for some disaffected Muslims living in the west.
Charles Kurzman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A second plot was planned on 9/11, but there were too few terrorists to carry it off. Twenty years later, al-Qaida and its offshoot the Islamic State group still have trouble attracting recruits.
The potential failure of the US military to protect information that can identify Afghan citizens raises questions about whether and how biometric data should be collected in war zones.
Indonesia, as well as many other countries that will see an increase in Afghan refugees and asylum seekers, will be put to a test of humanity and will have to act quickly.
An ‘orderly departure program’ similar to the one set up after the Vietnam War could offer a vital pathway out of Afghanistan for refugees over the next several years.
Amira Jadoon, United States Military Academy West Point et Andrew Mines, George Washington University
An attack on the Kabul airport has left scores dead and many more injured. Two terrorism scholars explain who the group thought responsible is, and how big of a threat is it.
Gemma Ware, The Conversation et Daniel Merino, The Conversation
Two Afghan researchers explain what led to the emergence of the Taliban in the 1990s and why that history is crucial to understand what’s happening now. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.