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Pakistan, being the immediate neighbour of Afghanistan, has been widely affected by the developments taking place in the country in the aftermath of the US withdrawal and the subsequent rise of the Taliban into power in August 2021. Pakistan's relationship with both the US and Afghanistan encountered new scenarios and a set of challenges. The US and Pakistan both found a space for more focus on bilateral ties, away from the burden of third party i.e., Afghanistan, which remained a key determining factor in their ties. However, it is yet to be seen how both countries carve a way out of the troubled history of engagement in the past. Similarly, despite Pakistan's historical links with the Taliban, its relationship with Afghanistan also witnessed a downward spiral due to border tensions and the resurgence of TTP. The paper looks into the changing dynamics of the bilateral US-Pakistan and Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship in the backdrop of geopolitical changes in the region after the US withdrawal. It argues that despite divergence in interests, it is crucial for Pakistan to engage both the US and Afghanistan for the fulfillment of its geo-economic aspirations in the region as a key determining factor of its foreign policy in recent times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fragility' is undermining developing countries of the world in managing challenges of capacity, legitimacy, and authority in their designated territories. The donor organizations and international developmental agencies label such countries as failing, failed, or fragile because they are unable to perform and fall short to deliver basic services to their population. They categorize such states based on multiple indices and reflect their performance through indexes in all sectors which shaped the perception of such states around the globe and the world perceives them with pre-determined notions. This article critically examines the methods, frameworks, or approaches used by such donor and international organizations to trace the origin of the concept of 'fragility'. The brief historical context of such indexes like World Bank, FSI, USAID, DFID, and CIFP, has also been discussed to analyze the purpose and objective of formulating or maintaining a database of failing, failed, and fragile states. Assessment methodology and data collection method of indexes have also been discussed for a better understanding of the concept. Fragility is a fluid concept and the academic definition of this concept is yet to be ascertained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghanistan has been in perpetual instability since last four decades after the invasion of USSR and then NATO under the leadership of United States of America. United States after the demise of Taliban started reconstruction of building of Afghan nation and spent more than a trillion dollars for the said purpose, with few apparent achievements, yet she couldn't achieve the desired targets due to many factors, i.e. lack of understanding of Afghan society, culture, history, role of regional players, no proper head towards political settlement with the Taliban, continuous change in policies, strategies and command in American camps accompanied by losing control of different areas due to engagement in Iraq war. United States adopted different approaches in the reins of George. W. Bush, Barrack Hussain Obama, and now Donald Trump. The mountainous terrain of Afghanistan proved more difficult than Vietnam for America. She looked many things with her own approach of handling issues with lack of understanding of new dimensions of Afghan social fabric, treacherous nature of regional players and last but not the least, the loopholes in handling increasing militancy and reorganization of Taliban in Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan's paradigm shift in foreign policy to geo-economics, necessitates that Islamabad look for opportunities within and outside the region to utilise its geographic and economic potential. This new policy shift makes the African region a key area of significance for Pakistan, owing to the huge trade and market potential of the region. The adoption of 'Look Africa Policy' by Pakistan is a key step. This paper aims to explore the options and opportunities for Pakistan in the African region. It analyses these opportunities and associated challenges in the light of economic diplomacy framework. The paper argues that Pakistan requires active diplomatic engagement at public and private levels both, to boost trade and economic relationship with African region for the mutual economic benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In its quest to stabilize the newly-merged tribal districts (formerly the Federally Administered Tribal Areas or FATA), Pakistan introduced a broad array of governance reforms in the region in May 2018. The reforms replaced the archaic colonial-era administrative system with modern state institutions existing in the adjoining KP. However, peace remains of paramount importance in the smooth and swift implementation of the reforms in a conflict-prone complex setting. This paper discusses the current security scenario in the erstwhile FATA and the existing challenges facing a successful implementation of the security sector reforms (SSR) being introduced by the government. It argues that the sole focus on the law enforcement aspect of the security sector reform does not comply with the diverse and complex security needs of the region especially in the aftermath of the Taliban coming into power in neighbouring Afghanistan in August 2021. The situation requires an allencompassing approach for SSR framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative is a mega project that will bring opportunities for Afghanistan and the entire region. As a regional initiative that finds a solution acceptable to all stakeholders of the Afghan peace process, the CPEC will contribute to Afghanistan's economic development and help bring long-awaited peace and prosperity to the war-torn state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]