South and Central Asian Conflicts

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO forces withdrew after nearly twenty years of war, culminating in the rapid collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and the fall of Kabul on 15 August 2021. The Taliban have since governed under an interpretation of Islamic law that has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls, including bans on secondary and university education for girls and women and extensive limits on women's employment and movement without a male guardian, measures the United Nations has described as amounting to systematic gender persecution; no country has formally recognized the Taliban government, though several, including China, Russia, and regional states, maintain diplomatic engagement. Afghanistan has faced a severe humanitarian crisis, with UN agencies reporting that a large share of the population requires humanitarian assistance, compounded by drought, an economy weakened by the loss of international aid and frozen central bank assets, and mass returns of Afghan refugees expelled from neighboring Pakistan and Iran since 2023. The country also remains host to an active insurgency by the regional Islamic State affiliate, Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), which has claimed numerous attacks against the Taliban government and civilians and has been assessed by Western intelligence agencies as retaining external attack ambitions.