Winter is Coming

END OF HISTORY: Rethinking superpower in the 21st century

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Winter is Coming One of the defining geopolitical events of the 21st century unfolded on August 15 this year when the Taliban stormed the capital of Afgh­anistan and took over Kabul without firing a shot. The Taliban takeover came just two months after US President Joe Biden announced he was pulling US troops out of America’s longest war. The ignominious withdrawal and the Taliban takeover has turned the country into a global pariah with no access to badly need­ ed foreign funding. A broke and hungry Afghanistan is on the brink—with winter approaching, there is a very real danger of millions of its citizens starving. Aspir­ ing hegemon China will be closely watching the blow to US prestige. Pakistan’s triumph—it has supported the Taliban for nearly three decades—could well be a pyr­rhic victory. Three separate conclave sessions decoded the tectonic geopolitical shift symbolised by the fall of Afghanistan. A former CIA director, an Afghan military veteran, Afghanistan’s former chief executive and two former diplomats, one Indian, one Pakistani, made sense of what lies ahead beyond this winter of discontent.

1. HUSSAIN HAQQANI

Former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States & Sri Lanka