The Taliban 2.0 Regime and Challenges to the State-Making in Contemporary Afghanistan

Political instability still continues in Afghanistan and the Taliban movement, which had a failed experience in state-building between 1996 to 2001, is in power once again. The current regime after four years since seizing the power has gained neither domestic legitimacy nor international recognition. They have yet to succeed in bringing about a convergence between the society and the state, and thus their regime. This study examines the challenges to the state-making in Afghanistan under the current Taliban regime. It argues that the Taliban’s top-down approach to state-making aims at preservation of their regime, predominated by Pashtuns, and the monopolization and implementation, often by force, of sharia and while there is no issue in general in the ruling of a country by a group of elected people from any ethnic group, the ethnic factor has been so prominent in politics in Afghanistan, where no ethnic community is in majority. The contemporary state-making challenges in Afghanistan are influenced by historical events in the past few decades, too. One should not forget the international aspect of state-making in Afghanistan. The relationship between the society and the Taliban, the regime’s policy in providing security, the political and armed opposition groups, policies of regional and international powers are discussed in this paper to prove the argument. The paper suggests that the Taliban should consider the public opinion while making and implementing policies to eliminate the gap between the regime and society and get domestic legitimacy and international recognition. For this purpose, efforts are needed at both national and international levels.