Mapping Futures for Afghanistan

Foreword

William Maley

Introduction: Knowledge Production on Afghanistan

Niamatullah Ibrahimi, Abbas Farasoo, Farkhondeh Akbari, and Arif Saba

PART I: POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

1.     Political Regimes, Contentious Politics, and the Future of Afghanistan

Niamatullah Ibrahimi

2.     The Tragedy of Exclusionary Domination: Challenges in Afghanistan’s Politics

Abbas Farasoo

3.     Negotiating Peacemaking for a Post-Taliban Future

Farkhondeh Akbari

4.     The Doha Agreement: A Path to Authoritarianism

Niamatullah Ibrahimi and Arif Saba

5.     Funding the State in Afghanistan

Nematullah Bizhan

6.     From Crisis to Resilience: Rethinking Aid Strategies for Afghanistan’s Rural and Environmental Needs

Safiullah Taye

7.     Towards a New Horizon: The Future of Political and Administrative Systems in Afghanistan

Timor Sharan

PART II: HUMAN RIGHTS AND SECURITY

8.     Addressing Mass Atrocities in Afghanistan: Towards a Responsibility to Protect and Prosecute

Arif Saba

9.     Transformative Transitional Justice in Afghanistan

Huma Saeed

10.  Women, Violence, and Law:  A Critical Analysis of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Nazifa Haqpal

11.  Protection of Minorities in Afghanistan

Kobra Moradi

12.  Beyond Bans: Examining Freedom of Expression in Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan through the Social Media Lens

Jawed Nader

PART III: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

13.  Constitutive Mechanisms of Proxy War: Insights from Afghanistan's Conflicts

Abbas Farasoo

14.  Geopolitics of Afghanistan: From Power Equilibrium to Hyperlandlockedness

Wahidullah Waissi

15.  Exploring the Prospect of Afghanistan as a Permanently Neutral State: A Historical Evaluation

Nasir Andisha

Biography

Arif Saba is a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI), Deakin University. He completed his PhD in International Relations at Deakin University, where his research focused on dynamics of norm contestation in International Relations, specifically examining how rising powers contest human protection norms such as the Responsibility to Protect. Dr Saba’s research focuses on rising powers and international order, international norms, and the international criminal justice system. His researched has appeared in leading academic journals, including Journal of Contemporary China, Global Studies Quarterly, International Politics, and International Peacekeeping.

Abbas Farasoo is a researcher at La Trobe University specializing in international security, contentious politics, and diplomacy. In addition to his academic career, he has served in key diplomatic and governmental roles, including as Deputy Director-General for Regional Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and as Chargé d’Affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Australia. His research includes a Carnegie Corporation of New York-funded project on proxy wars in Syria and Afghanistan at Deakin University, and his work has been published in leading journals such as International Studies Review and Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Dr. Farasoo holds a PhD from Deakin University and an MA from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Farkhondeh Akbari is a Research Fellow at Monash University where she conducts research on inclusive peace, diplomatic actors, foreign policy and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. She received her PhD in diplomatic studies from the Australian National University. Her publications include ‘Geopolitical Narratives of Withdrawal and the Counter-Narrative of Women’s Rights Activism in Afghanistan,’ Global Studies Quarterly (2024), ‘Bargaining with Patriarchy in Peacemaking,’ Global Studies Quarterly (2024) and forthcoming books on Women, Peace and Security in Afghanistan (2025) and Peace Settlements with Non-State Armed Actors (Routledge, 2025).

Niamatullah Ibrahimi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Initiative for Peacebuilding of the University of Melbourne. His research interests include political violence, post-conflict political orders, social movements and contentious politics, and nationalism and ethnic politics. He has also worked for several leading think-tanks and international organisations, including the International Crisis Group and the Crisis States Research Centre of the London School of Economics. He is the co-author of (with William Maley) Afghanistan: Politics and Economics in a Globalising State (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).