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Podcast: Middle East Dossier
Episode: Afghanistan: What Happens Next?
Description: The past two weeks have seen the Taliban return to power more rapidly than the regime’s fall nearly 20 years ago. Many observers of Afghanistan feared that the nation’s fragile democracy would not last long beyond the withdrawal of American troops but very few predicted that this transition would happen over a matter of days rather than months or years. The unexpected nature of this transition should prompt humility in any analyst but the questions raised are all the more important.
In evaluating the past:
Was this outcome inevitable or could the government have survived with...