The Islamic State in Afghanistan: a Real Threat to the Region?

... became the core of that same cohort, which was mobilized to participate in the fighting in Iraq and Syria . Having been cut off from their land for many years, they are a universal tool and a major asset that can be used with equal effectiveness in Af-Pak, the Middle East and Central Asia. As it currently stands, the Islamic State has failed to overcome the mutual distrust among its actual and potential supporters, who used to make up the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. The mechanisms to overcome tribal rivalries within the Pashtun ethnic group as well as general mistrust of other ethno-linguistic groups towards the Pashtuns were not found [9] . In fact, the central government in Raqqa did not put its agents ...