67 gfpr 10.31703/gfpr Global Foreign Policies Review gfpr 2788-502X 2788-5038 Humanity Publications Pakistan 393634 10.31703/gfpr.2022(V-II).04 4103 1.0 article Taliban 2.0: An Analysis of Taliban's use of Political Communication During the Kabul 'Triumph' and Ensuing Quest for Global Recognition Tabish Muhammad Conceptualization Writing – original draft Munir Kishwar Writing – review & editing Asghar Muhammad Faizan Writing – review & editing Department of International Relations, School of Integrated Social Sciences, (SISS), University of Lahore PhD Scholar Punjab Pakistan School of Integrated Social Sciences, (SISS), University of Lahore Assistant Professor Punjab Pakistan Department of International Relations, School of Integrated Social Sciences, (SISS), University of Lahore Punjab Pakistan Corresponding Author: Muhammad Tabish, PhD Scholar, Department of International Relations, School of Integrated Social Sciences, (SISS), University of Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

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The authors received no specific funding for this work.

 2022 Humanity Publications This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Full Text PDF

In an unprecedented turn of events witnessed in August 2021, a vast territory of Afghanistan fell under complete control of the Taliban on 15th August 2021. Despite 300'000 strong force, Afghan National Army (ANA) failed to put up any resistance against the Taliban blitzkrieg. What was more surprising was the apparent change in the political communication strategy of the Taliban during their conquest and after they took control of Kabul. The way Taliban spokespersons used social media, held press conferences, gave assurances to rival factions, and offered amnesties to the Afghan national army and other rivals played a significant role in the conception of 'Taliban 2.0'. This article sheds light on the use of communication by the group in the first public appearance of their spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid in a maiden press conference held on 17th August 2021. This particular press conference defines the road map the Taliban has to walk in their quest for Global recognition.

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In an unprecedented turn of events witnessed in August 2021, a vast territory of Afghanistan fell under complete control of the Taliban on 15th August 2021. Despite 300'000 strong force, Afghan National Army (ANA) failed to put up any resistance against the Taliban blitzkrieg. What was more surprising was the apparent change in the political communication strategy of the Taliban during their conquest and after they took control of Kabul. The way Taliban spokespersons used social media, held press conferences, gave assurances to rival factions, and offered amnesties to the Afghan national army and other rivals played a significant role in the conception of 'Taliban 2.0'. This article sheds light on the use of communication by the group in the first public appearance of their spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid in a maiden press conference held on 17th August 2021. This particular press conference defines the road map the Taliban has to walk in their quest for Global recognition.

 Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

 Ethics Statement

This study did not require formal ethics approval.

 Data Availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

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