Sadly, I’ve never been to Afghanistan. Nor have I ever met a member of the Taliban. The closest I’ve come to it was during a trip to China in 2024, when our Beijing bureau chief enterprisingly asked the Taliban’s representative to the People’s Republic whether he would be willing to meet his editor-in-chief, without spelling out my name (or gender). The response was an enthusiastic yes. Then at the very last minute the meeting was cancelled. My colleague, mischievously, wondered whether the Taliban embassy had done a last-minute internet search on me.

Afghanistan is a country whose haunting, arid beauty captures the imagination of many who have been nowhere near it. Its recent history marks a humiliation for Western liberal interventionism, just as in generations past it was the graveyard of empires. The Taliban’s repression of women and girls, repression that if anything is intensifying, is a shocking moral stain. 

This week, to mark the fifth anniversary of America’s embarrassing and chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, we are going to focus The Insider on what is going on inside Afghanistan. Has the strategy of isolating the country’s regime by way of sanctions, frozen assets and withholding diplomatic recognition worked? What is life like today for ordinary Afghans? And, when it comes to the world’s approach to dealing with the Taliban, is it time to try something new?

Tom Sasse, The Economist’s South Asia bureau chief, recently returned from a 1,000km road trip inside Afghanistan. He travelled from Kabul to Herat and Kandahar, meeting Taliban officials, business figures, village elders and school girls. He will join us from Delhi tomorrow to explain what he learnt from his travels. Steve Coll, visiting senior editor, will also join the discussion online from his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He is particularly well versed in the history of America’s campaign in Afghanistan, having written two books on the topic. (The show will also double as an unofficial launch party for his third, which is due to be published next year.) Robert Guest, deputy editor, and Chris Lockwood, Asia editor, will accompany me in the studio. They’re both regional experts, and Robert has fascinating anecdotes to share from a reporting trip he took before the Taliban regained power.

In the first part of tomorrow’s discussion we’ll explore what Afghanistan is like today. I’ll be relying heavily on Tom’s insights. In conversations since his trip, he has described to me a country gripped by a grim calm: heavily armed men patrol the streets, music is banned, poverty and unemployment are rife. We’ll also examine how countries are behaving towards the Taliban regime. Only Russia formally recognises the de facto government, but others are also in contact with it. The European Union, hypocritically, won’t offer recognition, but recently invited Taliban officials to Brussels to discuss migrant repatriation. I want to hear from you, too. Should Western nations formally recognise the Taliban government? Please tell us by voting in our poll.

In the second half of the show, we’ll ask what needs to change. Is it time to end the policy of isolation? How can we best encourage moderation? What’s in the interests of Western democracies? And, most important, what is most likely to help the Afghan people? I expect it to be a difficult conversation during which we have to confront some hard truths—and that’s precisely why it is worth having.

The show will be available to watch from 6pm London time (1pm in New York) on Thursday. We’ll be reviewing the results of this week’s poll during the discussion, as well as answering some of your questions. Please tell us what you want to know by using the Q&A feature on the episode page. And if you have feedback or suggestions for future episodes, please write to me at insider@economist.com.