Written by Velina Tchakarova
It will be interesting to follow how China will navigate this playground, as Beijing is likely to be the next great power to try and fill the void. Perhaps that is exactly why the US is pulling out now — the move could possibly become an American trap if China enters the Afghan quagmire and fails.
Read MoreWritten by Abdul Basit
The gap and the lack of trust between Afghanistan’s political and military leadership have equally contributed to the Afghan security forces’ poor performance against the Taliban’s ground offensive. It is a well-known fact that several units of the Afghan security forces were not fighting by making arrangements with the Taliban, such as staging fake operations.
Read MoreIn Brief with Mohammad Mirwais Balkhi
The Taliban are certainly waiting for an opportunity to make their move. Nevertheless, I don’t see the Taliban being able to take over and rule Afghanistan regardless of whether the US withdraws. So far, the Afghan government in Kabul has underestimated the ethnic nature of the war.
Read MoreWritten by Aniruddha Saha and Neha Dwivedi
Any move that might signal another era of India-US bilateral ambivalence could significantly rupture the improving ties as both nations have a history steeped in anxiety, insecurity, and distrust.
Read MoreWith Happymon Jacob
When one looks at Sino-EU relations from New Delhi, it seems that the EU is not so critical of Chinese policy. The EU wants to do business with China and Brussels is not very keen to push back on Beijing's aggressive behaviour or criticise its conduct toward smaller countries in the Indo-Pacific. The CAI, which replaces 16 existing economic agreements with Beijing with a single major agreement is perhaps indicative of this.
Read MoreWritten by Saurav Sarkar
The attackers were well-armed and equipped pointing towards careful preparation and a well-tested strategy. The tactics used by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria appear to have been deployed with lethal effectiveness by ISKP in Afghanistan.
Read MoreWritten by I-wei Jennifer Chang and Haiyun Ma
For the Chinese government, the Taliban is a tolerable political player that can assist Chinese authorities in quelling its main security concerns arising from alleged Uyghur militants in Afghanistan.
Read MoreWritten by Tim Foxley
If Afghanistan lapses into a multi-factional civil war, most of the flawed but real international progress made – women’s rights, human rights, children in schools, election processes - could unravel in a handful of years.
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