My guest today is Romain Malejacq, assistant professor at the department of political science at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. Romain studies civil war and political violence, with a particular focus on Afghanistan. He has written a book on Afghan warlords titled Warlord Survival: The Delusion of State Building in Afghanistan (2019, Cornell University Press).

So who better to help us understand current events. Kabul fell on 15 August as Taliban forces entered the capital, mere hours after president Ashraf Ghani had fled the country. What happened? And why did the regime collapse this rapidly?

Background readings:

- The past and future of Afghan warlords, https://spectator.clingendael.org/en/publication/past-and-future-afghan-warlords

- Don’t expect Afghanistan to have a Western-style government. This explains why. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/17/dont-expect-afghanistan-have-western-style-government-this-explains-why/

- Sahelistan? Military Intervention and Patronage Politics in Afghanistan and Mali, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698249.2020.1813405

Music: Dexter Britain (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0), www.dexterbritain.com