ISAS Working Papers

New Delhi, in recent times, has been confronted with some hard choices in Afghanistan. A decade - long policy of providing huge humanitarian and developmental assistance, which has accrued tremendous go odwill among the Afghans, is now perceived to be in imminent danger of being dis rupted and overwhelmed by the United States (US) dec ision of conditional withdrawal. This is in addition to the recently shifting discourse of negotiating with the Taliban, whi ch is interpreted as an upsurge of Pakistani influence in Kabul. The choice for India was never whether it should sta y engaged in Afghanistan or not. E ven in the face of repeated onslaughts on its personnel and mission , India was committed to staying the c ourse . However, decision making to that extent has become even more d ifficult given that the West appears to be in a hurry to bring its ominous gamble in Afghanistan to a close. It is thus timely to take stock of India’s role a nd interests in Afghanistan. I t is also useful to explore various policy options in the evo lving scenarios of limited down sizing or even complete withdrawal of interna tional troops from the conflict - ridden country.