Why the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004-2021) Collapsed? The Path to Peace after the Rise of the Taliban 2.0

Sammanfattning: With the fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021, Afghanistan has been back to where it was in 2001, a closed autocracy ruled by the Taliban. However, it was required to search out why the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2004-2021 collapsed. In this work, I have used primary and secondary sources to dig out what factors perpetuate conflict in Afghanistan and why the Afghan republic collapsed. For an in-depth analysis, I have conducted semi-structured interviews of former ministers, experts, diplomats, human rights activists, policy advisors military personnel et al. I have used international relations theories to make sense of different events that occurred in the last two decades; sociological perspectives are employed to make sense of the Taliban movement. For answering my main research question, I mostly relied on the realist paradigm. The findings manifest that the fall of Kabul was the result of collective failures— a combination of both internal and external factors. Internally, massive corruption, misgovernance, a centralized governance structure in which the President was ruling like a king, non-inclusive governments, and failure to build an indigenous economy led to the state collapse. On the external front, the disruptive role of regional countries especially Pakistan, the failure to understand the Taliban movement, the failure of not having a clear and long-term plan and the clumsy Doha Deal contributed to the collapse of the state. Through this research project, it became clear that what internationally has been construed as an extremism issue is in reality the result of structural flaws within Afghan polity and regional rivalries. Long-term peace would be possible when the internal system of Afghanistan would be built-up in a way that does not perpetuate conflict and regional countries cooperate with each other and do not use Afghan soil against each other. With the withdrawal of NATO forces and the return of the Taliban, the geopolitical scenario has been altered, so in the end, I have given recommendations to the parliamentarians on how they can engage with the Taliban and prepare the ground for a peace process that can lead to sustainable peace.