Author(s): Azeem Gul, Sumeera Imran, Arif Khan, Javed Hassan Hashmi, Hassan Farooq, Syed Arslan Haider, Moiz Khan
This paper examines the US and the Taliban war in Afghanistan and its effects on various dimensions of Pakistan’s security. The major rational of the US waging war against the Taliban was the contradiction in political outlook between US and the Taliban leaders led the Taliban leaders’ refusal to comply with the US policy of punishing the terrorists who had attacked world trade center and Pentagon in September 2001. In the first phase of the US-Taliban war, the US used hard power to topple the Taliban regime. The Taliban responded to the strategy with guerrilla tactics when US led forces advanced in different areas of Afghanistan, leading to the US exhaustion of military power in 2014. The second phase of the US war strategy included training the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) against the Taliban. This strategy also led to confessional strategic failure as US General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has expressed categorically. In the third phase, the US aimed to resolve the conflict through peace talks, which was successfully leading to US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 31, 2021. Against this backdrop, the central theme of the paper revolves around the effects of US and the Taliban war on Pakistan’s various dimensions of security and its Afghanistan relations. First, a major mistrust with the previous former governments in Afghanistan and the most important military and economic security disadvantageous position Pakistan ever faced since 2001. The current study is significant for academics, politicians, policy-makers knowing how conflict in Afghanistan has shaped situation in Pakistan.