Mapping Futures for Afghanistan (Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series)

Mapping Futures for Afghanistan offers a critical and forward-looking exploration of Afghanistan’s most pressing challenges and future possibilities. It examines the current crises posed by the Taliban’s return to power and the collapse of the Republic in August 2021 and maps a range of challenges and solutions that will shape the country’s long-term future.

As the first volume of its kind to be entirely produced by scholars from Afghanistan, it critically engages with the dominant narratives and re-imagines the country’s path toward a just, pluralistic and democratic future. Featuring original contributions from leading experts, the volume critically examines Afghanistan’s political, economic, human rights, and geopolitical challenges - while exploring potential solutions. It foregrounds local knowledge and perspectives that are often excluded from mainstream policy and academic discourses.

This timely collection will be of interest to a wide range of audiences, including policymakers, practitioners, scholars and students with an interest in Afghanistan and the broader processes and challenges of inclusive peacebuilding and conflict resolution in war-torn societies.

Arif Saba is a Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI), Deakin University. He completed his PhD in International Relations at Deakin University, where his research focused on dynamics of norm contestation in International Relations, specifically examining how rising powers contest human protection norms such as the Responsibility to Protect. Dr Saba’s research focuses on rising powers and international order, international norms, and the international criminal justice system. His researched has appeared in leading academic journals, including Journal of Contemporary China, Global Studies Quarterly, International Politics, and International Peacekeeping.

Abbas Farasoo is a researcher at La Trobe University specializing in international security, contentious politics, and diplomacy. In addition to his academic career, he has served in key diplomatic and governmental roles, including as Deputy Director-General for Regional Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan and as Chargé d’Affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Australia. His research includes a Carnegie Corporation of New York-funded project on proxy wars in Syria and Afghanistan at Deakin University, and his work has been published in leading journals such as International Studies Review and Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Dr. Farasoo holds a PhD from Deakin University and an MA from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Farkhondeh Akbari is a Research Fellow at Monash University where she conducts research on inclusive peace, diplomatic actors, foreign policy and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. She received her PhD in diplomatic studies from the Australian National University. Her publications include ‘Geopolitical Narratives of Withdrawal and the Counter-Narrative of Women’s Rights Activism in Afghanistan,’ Global Studies Quarterly (2024), ‘Bargaining with Patriarchy in Peacemaking,’ Global Studies Quarterly (2024) and forthcoming books on Women, Peace and Security in Afghanistan (2025) and Peace Settlements with Non-State Armed Actors (Routledge, 2025).

Niamatullah Ibrahimi is a Senior Research Fellow at the Initiative for Peacebuilding of the University of Melbourne. His research interests include political violence, post-conflict political orders, social movements and contentious politics, and nationalism and ethnic politics. He has also worked for several leading think-tanks and international organisations, including the International Crisis Group and the Crisis States Research Centre of the London School of Economics. He is the co-author of (with William Maley) Afghanistan: Politics and Economics in a Globalising State (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020).