Who is to blame for the current diplomatic deadlock between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the West? 

Have the Taliban really changed?

Is there such thing as Taliban 2.0? If so, how and why is it different from Taliban 1.0?

To discuss these questions and more, Ahmed-Waleed Kakar hosts former humanitarian aid worker Cathal Ó Gabhann (@AnOGabhannOg) to discuss his latest oped for the National Interest: 'The West is Getting Afghanistan Wrong, Again'. 

Cathal Ó Gabhann has spent four years working in Afghanistan, in which he dealt with the Taliban on a daily basis, and has spent the past fourteen years interacting with armed insurgent groups throughout Asia, as well as with prisoners of war and victims of alleged war crimes. 

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In the third episode of The Afghan Brief, the latest issue of national significance from Afghanistan is discussed. Sangar and Ahmed-Waleed dissect the convening of a grand assembly of three thousand religious scholars and tribal elders from across Afghanistan. They analyse the name given to the gathering, the ambiguity surrounding its stated purpose, the lack of female participation and its potential effects on the Afghan government and Afghanistan going forth.

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 In the second episode of The Afghan Brief, Sangar and Ahmed-Waleed discuss ongoing rescue efforts by the Afghan government and the international reaction to a devastating earthquake in Afghanistan's southeast Loya Paktia region. They also discuss the crippling constraints posed by continued US sanctions on Afghanistan, as well as the earthquake's potentially accelerating pre-existing geopolitical and regional trends. 

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On the first ever episode of The Afghan Brief, Ahmed-Waleed and Sangar cover the latest news coming out of Afghanistan, including a travel ban on two officials of the Afghan government. They also discuss signs of seemingly warming ties between Westminster and Kabul.

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What the Afghan national identity? Where does nationalism and ethno-nationalism come from? How should we interpret the call for partition by some fringe groups online? In this episode, host Sangar Paykhar and Historian Ahmed-Waleed Kakar attempt to answer all these questions. 

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Gulmakai Saleh: https://gulmakai.com/
https://twitter.com/GulmakaiSaleh
https://www.youtube.com/user/gulmakai
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/gulmakai-saleh-937a82a3/
https://www.facebook.com/GulmakaiSaleh/

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After the fall of the previous regime on 15 August, the Taliban are now the de facto government of Afghanistan. Sangar Paykhar spoke to professor Ashok Swain about the prospects of a government led by the Taliban. 

Ashok Swain is a Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, UNESCO Chair of International Water Cooperation, and the Director of Research School of International Water Cooperation at Uppsala University. He has been a Mac Arthur Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago, Fellow at UNRISD, Geneva; and visiting professor at University of British Columbia, University of Maryland, Stanford University, McGill University, Tufts University and University of Natural Sciences and Life Sciences, Vienna.

E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @ashoswai

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Ahmed-Waleed Kakar & Sangar Paykhar discuss the subsequent fall of provincial capitals in Northern Afghanistan, the UN Security Council discussion about Aghanistan, the demand from Kabul to sanction Pakistan and Sun Tzu's the Art of War's application to current situation in Afghanistan. 

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 Habib Wardak is a political analyst who graduated with an MA in Defence and Strategic Studies from the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies in the University of Pune. He worked as a lecturer at Kardan University's Department of International Relations and has extensive experience working with the international community in Afghanistan. Most recently, he worked as a senior official at the Afghan Ministry of Defence; a job he left for ethical reasons. In this episode, Ahmed-Waleed and Sangar host Habib. They quiz him on his family's political background, their association with figures like Professor Burhan ud-Din Rabbani, Pir Sayyid Ahmad Gilani, Ahmad Shah Massoud, Mawlawi Jalal ud-Din Haqqani and Mullah Omar. Habib dissects his experience working with the international community and the Afghan Ministry of Defence, whilst retelling the harrowing details of his family being the target of a night raid by US forces, as well as being interrogated by the notorious NDS: Afghanistan's intelligence agency.

Habib Wardak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HabibWardak 

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 In the 25th episode of The Afghan Eye Podcast, Sangar and Ahmed-Waleed host Fatima Ayub: a senior political analyst with over two decades of experience working on Afghanistan in organisations like Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group and the European Council for Foreign Relations. Sangar asks Fatima about what drove her, as an Afghan woman, to study about Afghanistan, as well as the fallacies Fatima encountered when working within international organisations with regard to Afghanistan. Finally, Sangar and Fatima exchange views regarding the role of Afghan diaspora in the future of the country. Fatima Ayub on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecynicist 

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