Paper details

Paper authors	ALVARO DE ARGUELLES
In panel on	The politics of negotiating with authoritarian regimes
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

On August 15, the Taliban seized Kabul, marking the beginning of their new Emirate. Since then, assets like central bank deposits in the US or the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights have been frozen, and organizations like the World Bank have halted their aid to the country. On top of that, humanitarian organizations now have to learn how to operate in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, which includes delivering supplies to airports under the group’s control, travelling through the war-torn countryside, etcetera. The UN has warned that millions are at risk of famine, a situation aggravated by severe droughts and the spread of covid.

The goal of my paper would be to study how aid groups manage to negotiate with the Taliban to be able to reach those in need, while guaranteeing the security of their workers. Special attention should be paid to lessons learned during the first emirate (1996-2001), as well as from other territories where Islamist insurgent groups are in control, such as HTS in Idlib, northern Syria. In addition, this serves as a litmus test to judge if there’s any truth to the rhetorical shift of the ‘Taliban 2.0’.

Back