ISAS Working Papers

The Afghan government, the Taliban, the United States and the international forces in Afghanistan announced an unprecedented ceasefire over the three days of Eid in June 2018. The ceasefire built on an offer of unconditional peace talks by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in February 2018, a condemnation of terrorism by international and Afghan religious scholars and clerics, and a ceasefire announcement by the Afghan government to celebrate Eid and the end of Ramadan. Scenes of Taliban and Afghan soldiers posing together abounded on the internet during the ceasefire. While the Taliban and the government have since ended the ceasefire and fighting has resumed and ramped up, this paper argues that it will be difficult to put the genie back into the bottle. There are already signs that the fundamentals of interaction between the Taliban and the government have changed.