On 15 August 2024, The Cipher Brief published the article "Three Years Later, a ‘Report Card’ for the Taliban" which features an interview with NESA Center Professor Dr. Hassan Abbas. The interview, published on the anniversary of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, examines Taliban rule over the last three years.

Dr. Abbas, a scholar of the region and author of The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After the Americans Left, says this iteration of the Taliban – what he calls "Taliban 3.0" – has had both predictable failures and some successes that he and other experts did not foresee. Dr. Abbas is also among those who believe that greater western engagement with the Taliban rulers is in the interest of the U.S. and its allies.

Read the interview.

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