This article was written by IWP M.A. candidate Arash Yaqin.
Two decades after the Afghanistan Bonn conference that excluded the Taliban, the future of the Afghan people depends again on a foreign summitry, this time likely one in Istanbul, Turkey. While ordinary Afghans have neither a role in directing the content of the peace talks nor a voice in the negotiations process, Afghan officials and the Taliban are invited to come together under United Nations (UN) auspices to reach an agreement about Afghanistan political future. President Joe Biden’s recent decision to withdraw U.S. troops by September 11 has resulted in greater uncertainty about whether the Taliban will participate in the upcoming summit.