AfPak File: Making Sense of Pakistan's Afghanistan Diplomacy

In recent days, a flurry of high-level visitors have flocked to Islamabad to discuss a nascent but fragile Afghan peace process.

These include Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan; the head of U.S. Central Command; the Afghan president’s special envoy for peace; and a special envoy from the foreign affairs ministry of Qatar, which has served as the venue for the intra-Afghan dialogue between Kabul and the Taliban to this point. What explains this diplomacy, and what does it say about Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace process and its relationship with Kabul?

The latest edition of The AfPak Pile discusses these questions and more. Joining the debate are Amina Khan, director of the Centre for Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad; Mohammad Amin Mudaqiq, an Afghan journalist and director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Radio Mashaal; and Michael Kugelman, Asia Program deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center.

Muhammad Tahir, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Washington DC media manager, moderates the discussion.

This podcast originally appeared on REF/RL.