Exploring the current EU approach of engagement with the new Taliban government without official recognition, and how the EU’s five benchmarks for assessment should be interpreted and considered.

A field-based commentary from Afghanistan showcasing how the hard-line Islamist group, which took over ministries and local administrations following its crushing victory, is raising scepticism, fears - and sometimes cautious optimism – among the people they now have to rule.

Jimmy Carter served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.

How existing international frameworks prohibiting landmine use have failed to prevent the proliferation of landmines in Libya, and what actions the international community could do to mitigate this.

Iraq is currently facing one of its driest summers on record. 2018 was the driest year ever recorded due to a lack of rainfall, and 2021 is not far behind. Recent years’ droughts have wreaked havoc on the land in Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, but climate change is not the only driver of water shortages. Consequences of unilateral, upstream activity, water mismanagement, a lack of accountability and conflict have all exacerbated Iraq’s water crisis.

For many, it is a disaster foretold. As America ends the longest of its “forever wars”, foreign troops leave Afghanistan after twenty troubled years and Taliban militants seize more and more territory amid fears of rising bloodshed and destruction, the emerging international consensus is simple: another state collapse in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban would be a danger both to the region and the world.

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