For authoritarian regimes, legitimacy is not a symbolic concern; it is a structural necessity. As political theorist Hannah Arendt argued in “On Violence,” systems that rely primarily on violence ...

Last week, as the Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid triumphantly declared 2025 “a year of diplomatic success,” the claim was received with predictable laud from the movement’s echo chambers. But ...

Though aid dollars to Afghanistan are intended to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground, in practice they have worked to stabilize the Taliban—and indirectly help Iran evade international ...