- 09 Nov 2021
From the Middle East to Afghanistan: The Evolution of the Islamic State in Khorasan Province
(This event is organised by MEI Political Economy research cluster.)
Abstract
Dr Antonio Giustozzi, author of the books The Taliban at War and The Islamic State in Khorasan, will discuss the role of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, following the fall of Kabul. Alongside him will be Raffaello Pantucci, a researcher at RSIS whose work looks at security dynamics in the Eurasian heartland.
Their discussion will map the evolution of the Islamic State’s footprint from Syria to Afghanistan and its current relationship with the Taliban. Will future Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP) attacks, similar to the recent one that happened at Kabul International Airport taking the lives of hundreds of Afghans and 13 US servicemen, complicate Taliban efforts to demonstrate its control of Afghanistan? Will ISKP launch an assassination campaign to eliminate high-level Taliban cadres with the same tactics previously used by the Taliban themselves when they attacked Afghan government officials? Will the Taliban seek greater co-operation with the West and/or other external powers to target ISKP? Also, will greater engagement with outside powers, including China, promote dissatisfaction within Taliban ranks that will in turn increase the ISKP’s recruitment?
Moderated by Dr Alessandro Arduino, Principal Research Fellow, MEI (NUS), Dr Giustozzi and Mr Pantucci will explore these questions and look at the future of Eurasia security architecture, post-US and NATO withdrawals from the region.
This public talk will be conducted online via Zoom on Tuesday, 9 November 2021, from 5.00 pm to 6.30 pm (SGT). All are welcome to participate. This event is free, however, registration is compulsory. Successful registrants will receive a confirmation email with the Zoom details closer to the date of the event.
Image caption: Taliban fighters patrol in an armored vehicle at the airport in Kabul on September 13, 2021. Photo by Karim SAHIB via AFP
Listen to the full event here:
Watch the full event here:
About the Speakers
Visiting Professor, King’s College London
Affiliate, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
Mr Raffaello Pantucci
Senior Fellow
International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University
[Moderator] Dr Alessandro Arduino
Principal Research Fellow
Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS)
Dr Antonio Giustozzi holds a PhD from the LSE (International Relations) and a
BA in Contemporary History from the University of Bologna. He was at the Crisis States Research Centre in LSE until January 2011. He served with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan from 2003to 2004 and is currently also affiliated with RUSI.
Dr Giustozzi is working on Pakistani’s jihadist groups now. In the past, he carried out several large research projects in Afghanistan, where he still conducts some consultancy work. Other areas of continuing interest are training and advisory missions, demobilisation and reintegration and international insurgent groups (global jihadists and others).
Mr Raffaello Pantucci is a Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI. Previously, he worked at strategic studies think tanks such as IISS and ECFR in London, CSIS in Washington and SASS in Shanghai.
His new book Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire looking at Chinese interests in Central Asia is due to be published by Oxford University Press early next year. Dr Pantucci’s journal articles have appeared in Survival, The National Interest, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Terrorism and Political Violence, amongst others, while his journalistic writing has been published in The New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Straits Times, South China Morning Post and more. His research interests focus on China’s relations over its western borders, as well as terrorism and counter-terrorism.
[Moderator] Dr Alessandro Arduino is the Principal Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore (MEI-NUS). He is the
Co-director of the Security & Crisis Management International Centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Science and an Associate at Lau China Institute, King’s College London.
His 20 years of experience in China encompasses security analysis and crisis management. His main research interests include China, Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa relations, sovereign wealth funds, private military/security companies and China’s security and foreign policy.
Dr Arduino is the author of several books and he has published papers and commentaries in various journals in Italian, English and Chinese. His most recent book is China’s Private Army: Protecting the New Silk Road (Palgrave, 2018) and has been appointed Knight of Order of the Star of Italy by the president of the Italian Republic.
