Articles - The Durand Dispatch

Featured Articles

Independent, in-depth analyses of key regional security issues, written by external contributors.

Featured Articles are independent, in-depth analyses of key regional security issues, written by external contributors. We prioritise work from local scholars, field researchers, and regional specialists, whose close engagement with these environments brings nuanced, experience-driven insight to complex security dynamics.

Featured Articles

Inside Balochistan’s Escalating Insurgency

New ICCT Analysis: Engineering the Virtual Caliphate — Islamic State’s Exploitation of Gen-Z Culture

Why Insurgents Attack Americans: What the Data Tells Us and What to do About it

Understanding Pakistan’s Security Crisis: The Research Behind the Headlines (2017–2026)

The Fractured Emirate: How Hibatullah Akhundzada is Reshaping the Taliban

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s Footprints in Bangladesh: The Emergence of a Transnational Recruitment Pipeline

Not Your Father’s Afghanistan: The West’s Blind Spot on al-Qaeda’s Resurgence

Women-Focused Propaganda & Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

Understanding the Broader Pakistan-Afghanistan Crisis

Education Under Fire: Schools on the Frontlines in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan

Beyond Regime Change: How a New U.S. Approach to Iran Advances Global and Regional Interests

Framing Pashtunistan: The War of Perceptions in the Pashtun Borderlands in Pakistan

Balochistan’s Battlegrounds: How Chinese Investments Fuel the Separatist Insurgency in Balochistan, Pakistan

Review: Mapping the Tehrik-i-Taliban’s Mobility Patterns through its Commemorative Materials, Tahir & Jadoon (May 2025)

Fractured Taliban: Catalyst for Political Evolution or Trigger for Regional Instability?

Ivory Edge: Academic Insights & Policy

Review: The Baloch Insurgency in Pakistan by Verma, Baloch, and Valle (April 2025)

The War of Assumptions: Key Takeaways from the U.S. Afghanistan War Commission’s Second Public Hearing

Between Borders and Politics: The Woes of Afghan Refugees in Pakistan

Spotlight: Women’s Inheritance Rights Under the Taliban

Decoding Pakistan’s 2024 Airstrikes in Afghanistan

Pakistan Ranked as World’s 2nd Most Terrorism -Affected Country

From Tajikistan to Moscow and Iran: Mapping the Local and Transnational Threat of Islamic State Khorasan – CTC Sentinel, May 2024, Volume 17, Issue 5

Explaining the Broader Implications of Islamic State-Khorasan’s Moscow Attack • Stimson Center

How Moscow terror attack fits ISIS-K strategy to widen agenda, take fight to its perceived enemies

Iran terror blast highlights success – and growing risk – of ISIS-K regional strategy

Rude Awakening: Pakistan’s Limited Leverage Over theAfghan Taliban

9DASHLINE — A looming challenge: Women in Pakistan’s terrorism landscape

The Enduring Duel: Islamic State Khorasan’s Survival under Afghanistan’s New Rulers – Combating Terrorism Center at West Point

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s Role in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Militant Infrastructure

A string of assassinations in Afghanistan point to ISIS-K resurgence – and US officials warn of possible attacks on American interests in next 6 months

Understanding Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Unrelenting Posture | Program on Extremism | The George Washington University

A year after the fall of Kabul, Taliban’s false commitments on terrorism have been fully exposed

The Untenable TTP-Pakistan Negotiations – South Asian Voices

Islamic State leader killed in US raid – where does this leave the terrorist group?

The Islamic State Threat in Taliban Afghanistan: Tracing the Resurgence of Islamic State Khorasan – Combating Terrorism Center at West Point

The Pakistani Taliban Is Reinventing Itself – South Asian Voices

The Taliban Can’t Take on the Islamic State Alone – War on the Rocks

Explaining the Broader Implications of Islamic State-Khorasan’s Moscow Attack • Stimson Center

The Evolving Taliban-ISK rivalry

What is ISIS-K? Two terrorism experts on the group behind the deadly Kabul airport attack and its rivalry with the Taliban

How To Deal With ISIS’ Affiliate in Afghanistan

Smaller and Smarter: Defining a Narrower U.S. Counterterrorism Mission in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Region

Gendering Recruitment Into Violent Organizations: Lessons For Counter-Terrorism Operations

Islamic State in Khorasan: Attempting to Absorb Rival Groups

Can the Islamic State’s Afghan Province Survive Its Leadership Losses?

Taking Aim: Islamic State Khorasan’s Leadership Losses

Islamic State Affiliate Seeks to Expand in Afghanistan

Fixing the Cracks in the Pakistani Taliban’s Foundation: TTP’s Leadership Returns to the Mehsud Tribe

The Militant Landscape, Tactics & Pakistan’s War on Terror

Challenging the ISK Brand in Afghanistan-Pakistan: Rivalries and Divided Loyalties

An Idea or a Threat? Islamic State Jammu & Kashmir

Militant Rivalries Extend to Female Recruitment in Pakistan – Combating Terrorism Center at West Point