Expert believes Taliban failed to change its way despite Intra-Afghanistan talks

According to an article titled 'Taliban 2.0. - Have the Taliban really changed and learnt their lesson' by Tamim Asey published in Atlantic Council, many Afghans, including members of the Republic’s negotiation team, do not believe that the Taliban have changed, noting that they still hold to their medieval, totalitarian, and dogmatic ideologies. In fact, they are more confident of their ideology because they believe that they have finally prevailed. 

"At the same time, some circles within the American diplomatic and foreign policy community as well as some of the United States’ western allies believe that the Taliban have in fact changed, having learnt important lessons during these years of war. In their view, the time has come for the West and Afghans to stop thinking of the Taliban as international terrorists but rather view them as a nationalist politico-military group and embrace them," read the article.

"It is time, they claim, to focus on helping the movement to adapt to being a conventional political player in Afghan politics and on the world stage, and to help them iron out their ideological flaws and rigid worldview through exposure and education," the article said.

The writer further said: "Importantly, the Taliban have also failed to spell out a specific vision for the future of Afghanistan, and are once again unable present a program for governance, service delivery, or maintenance of rule of law. They continue to resort to vague and generalized statements, and have neither been able – nor willing – to clearly spell out their views on education, health, reconstruction, and beyond."

She said the Taliban do not believe that change is necessary and have no incentives to acknowledge the realities of the new Afghanistan.