The study of causes and contexts of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan (2021-2015), a three-level analysis

The purpose of this article is to study the context and reasons for the return of the Taliban to political power in Afghanistan and the subsequent change in the fragile political order that prevailed in Afghanistan after 2001. Although military coups, violent riots, foreign intervention, and civil war have been recurring experiences since the 1970s; But the Taliban's dramatic advance and massive takeover of cities, commercial ports and key areas of Afghanistan, the fall of cities and the escalation of the war into cities, and finally the fall of Kabul, a new era of political and security instability and a wave of Concerns about Afghanistan's political future have raised for domestic and foreign actors. In this regard, the main question of this study is focused on why the Taliban returned and regained power in the Afghan political scene, which is studied within the framework of the 3 levels (national, regional and international) analysis approach. Findings show inefficiency, crisis of legitimacy and fragility of the government on the one hand and the internal capacities of the Taliban on the other hand at the national level, change in strategy and practic of neighbors such as Pakistan, India and Iran at the regional level and US, Russia and China, internationally have played a key role in Taliban returning to power in Afghanistan