Security risks emanating from Afghanistan : assessing the Islamist terror threat post-August 2021 Lucinda Creighton, Hans-Jakob Schindler [Recurso electrónico]

Bibliografía: p. 7-8

Political instability in one country will inevitably have a particularly strong spillover effect across its borders (1). The takeover of power by the Taliban in August 2021 and the re-establishment of their regime in Afghanistan represented a shock to regional and transnational security dynamics, with neighbouring countries fearing that activities of Islamist terrorist groups present in Afghanistan would spill over into their territory. The Taliban maintain close ties with Islamist terrorist groups, essentially acting as their protector. Some, such as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate, include former Taliban among their membership. This is notwithstanding the declaration by Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Taliban government, at their first press conference in Kabul, that the new regime was committed to ensuring security (2). While no high-profile attack has occurred in Europe since August 2021, the assumption that the Taliban has a purely local agenda that does not extend beyond the borders of Afghanistan fails to take into account the various regional and transnational networks that have been built since the 1980s.