In international relations, states need to 'consolidate' as cohesive units, academically speaking, to become useful members of the international community. Modern states come into existence either from evolution or through revolutions and ultimately must adopt the trappings of modern statehood like elections, executive, judiciary and legislature.

States also have to be sensitive to media, public perceptions and national aspirations like national will, aim, purpose, objectives and interests, vital as well as peripheral. Good governance reflecting sensitivity to citizenry's rights is also a prerequisite for modern states. National governments in violation of any of the above notions are censored internationally.

Afghanistan's modern political dispensation, run by the IEA after seizing power militarily in 2021, is a quasi-tribal arrangement with Pashtun religo-ethnic nationalism as dominant force/strand. Within the IEA, Qandahar represents the puritanical Islamic worldview, wed inextricably to Pashtunwali.

It is the spiritual mover and shaker of the Taliban movement under Moulvi Haibatullah Akhundzada. Qandahar takes a longer religious view of international, foreign relations and domestic policy. It sees everything through a religious angle that is frighteningly rigid for the common Afghans and foreign detractors, as it seems out of sync with modern life.

Within the broader Deobandi-Taqleedi (conformist) schools of Islamic theology, Qandahar wants to turn the clock back to the golden days of Islam, under the Khulafa-e-Rashideen (the Righteous Caliphs). IEA's military successes against the USSR and the US-NATO combine further reinforce this thinking. And this is........

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