AUIB Press Publishes Title, “The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left”

The American University of Iraq-Baghdad Press (AUIB Press) published the title, “The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left,” authored by Dr. Hassan Abbas and translated by Dr. Saad al-Hasani. The original English version of the book was published by Yale University Press in 2023.

The book presents groundbreaking research on the “New Taliban,” looking into its identity and make up, goals, and strategy, and seeking to map out the differences between the “evolved” Taliban and the one whose rule was toppled by the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The author delves into the differences between the “moderates” and the “hardliners” in the movement’s leadership, attempting to draw profiles of prominent leaders, and addressing challenges that face Taliban’s rule, from “humanitarian crises” to the “Islamic State in Khorasan.” The book also examines the new Afghani state’s international relations, focusing on those with China and Central Asian states.

The book allows drawing on “the lessons of the Afghans’ (experience) from the perspective of the Arab World in general and Iraq in particular… after the fall of the dictatorship in 2003 and the fall of Iraq under American occupation,” wrote AUIB’s Vice President of Corporate Engagement, Dr. Hassan Nadhem, in his foreword to the Arabic version of the book. Dr. Hassan Nadhem calls for studying the Afghan experience as it unfolds to gain relevant insights as the Taliban undergoes “a transitional phase through which the armed group transforms into a political group that forms a government and runs a country.” This requires “a change of mentality,” “engagement in modern institutions,” and the development of “various skills,” according to the author.

The author, Dr. Hassan Abbas, is a Pakistani American researcher and Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Strategic Studies Centre (NESA), National Defense University in Washington DC. The translator of the book into Arabic, Dr. Saad al-Hasani, is a prominent writer who worked as Professor of English Literature at the University of Baghdad for decades, and who is now head of the English language department at Al-Esraa University in Baghdad. He has written and translated tens of books in literature and history.