Between Member and Pariah: The International Recognition of the Taliban in Practice
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2024-07-08
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en
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The Taliban takeover of Kabul on the 15th of August 2021 left Afghanistan back at the hands of
the same group the US and allied forces had been fighting for almost 20 years. After foreign troops
left, the Taliban managed to consolidate their control. The means of force by which the Taliban
assumed power and their disregard for international norms, particularly regarding the rights of
women and girls, has put the question of recognition to the International Community, i.e. weather
to treat them as a member or pariah.
No foreign country has thus far legally recognized the group which therefore remains formally
isolated from the International Community. Yet, as countries are increasingly engaging with the
Taliban as the de facto government of Afghanistan, the analysis of micro practices of recognition reveals
a different picture. By analyzing recognition from a practice-based and social-relational perspective,
this work unravels crucial dynamics of governmental recognition in the current international system
that are at risk of being omitted by binary legal analyses. This research therefore combines insights
from international law, international relations and current theorizing on the influence of
macropolitical factors that allow to discern insights about how the Taliban are being recognized in
practice in the current international system.
The analysis shows that the approaches of members of the International Community exhibit
variation in extent and formalization of engagement, especially between the US and regional
countries, i.e. China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran and, to a lesser extent, India.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen