In early 2021, some Taliban fighters surrendered their weapons to support peace talks with the Afghan government. Today the Islamic extremist group is battling government forces to control the country.
Xinhua/Emran Waak via Getty Images
Two decades have passed since the US invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban’s Islamic extremist regime. Despite efforts to update its image, the group still holds hard-line views.
US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar sign an agreement ending the US’s 18-year war in Afghanistan, Doha, Feb. 29, 2020.
GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images
A peace deal with the Taliban has been signed. But rebuilding Afghanistan after three decades of conflict will take much more than an accord, says a scholar of peacebuilding.
A market in the Old City of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2019.
AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi
Building a lasting peace in Afghanistan will take much more than an accord with the Taliban. In post-conflict nations, economic development and job creation are critical to national security.