News + Politics

After the Longest War

As America plots an Afghanistan exit, this series looks at who gains and what that means.

The U.S. and the Taliban signed a historic agreement on Saturday that could pave the way for President Donald Trump to withdraw most American troops from Afghanistan and fulfill a campaign promise ahead of the 2020 elections.

What will the U.S. withdrawal mean for both countries, and for myriad nations — from Russia and China to India and Pakistan — with deep stakes in the region? Will the Taliban return to power, and which new faces will you see more of in the coming months and years? Which countries can actually guarantee peace and stability in Afghanistan?

This OZY series gets you answers to those questions, and gets you ahead of the curve on what to expect next.

Provocateurs

The Taliban’s Hidden Moderate

An outsider turned deputy political head, Mullah Abdul Salam Hanafi is now central to ending the war.

He was Afghanistan’s deputy education minister when the Taliban ruled the country in the 1990s — denying women the right to study and ensuring that only those books that subscribed to the group’s philosophy were available. If the Taliban returns to power after the U.S. withdrawal, expect Hanafi to take on a far bigger role in the new dispensation.

Now the Taliban’s deputy political head, he has been a central part of the group’s negotiations with the U.S., Russia, China and others, jet-setting to Moscow, Beijing and Doha. And analysts say that this time around, the well-educated mullah could actually prove to be a moderate, favorable to Afghanistan’s women.