Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen


Now They Must Govern: Prospects for the Taliban

August 24, 2021

Anything but monolithic, the newly victorious Taliban have internal divisions and are desperately seeking stability. Many confuse the Taliban with Al Qaeda and even ISIS, but the truth is ISIS was the Taliban’s enemy, and the country of Afghanistan is so vast it’s possible the Taliban did not even know international terrorists were using it as a base. On this show national security and foreign policy journalist Mutaza Hussain says the international response to the rise of the Taliban will shape Afghanistan’s fate. Now in power, they want stability and need to govern better than the American bureaucracy in Kabul. One thing the Afghans want is to reassert their unique identity. And regarding their new moderate tone, specifically on the rights of women, only international access can verify their claims. But isolating them can work no better than it did with Cuba.