afghanistan: ‘spoilers’ in the regional security context

the ongoing international military withdrawal from afghanistan has set the stage for energising the activities of afghanistan's external stakeholders to re-evaluate their activities. the possible return of the taliban in some form could compel afghanistan's current external partners—iran, india and russia—to turn into limited spoilers. the absence of an international guarantor in afghanistan from december 2014 is likely to encourage pakistan—a greedy spoiler—to intensify its meddling as a means to reposition the taliban—a total spoiler—at the helm of afghan affairs. the combination of limited, greedy and total spoilers threatens to undermine security and state-building processes.