Vishal Chandra

Warfare today is characterised not merely by territory gained or adversaries neutralised, but by the ability to shape perceptions, compress timelines and dominate across multiple domains. Contemporary wars have witnessed a tectonic shift in the goals of war, the rules of war, the players and the instruments of war, reshaping its character and unlimiting its boundaries. It is an era of C5ISR-based saturation stand-off attacks with space-based NPT and AI empowering precision strikes, while quantum communication makes the channels secure. Technology is transforming the character and the future of warfare.

• A.B. Shivane |
• April-June 2025 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

• ISBN: 978-81-991162-4-5,
• Price: ₹ 1295/-
• E-copy available

• Vishal Chandra |
• 2025 |
• Book

• ISBN: 978-81-988370-8-0,
• Price: ₹ 1295/-
• E-copy available

• Vishal Chandra |
• 2025 |
• Book

The Taliban's unwritten and ambiguous 'general amnesty' neither implies Tpolitical integration nor national reconciliation. It's about total control, and about who gets to stay and who gets to come back, and on what terms. In the absence of any credible political opposition, and with more and more Afghans being deported or forced to return to the country, including the exiled members of the previous regime, the Taliban's Contact Commission will remain in business in the foreseeable future. However, reports of violation of 'general amnesty' by the Taliban members, particularly in the case of mid and low ranking former military personnel, have exposed the limitations to the implementation of the amnesty decree across the country.

• Vishal Chandra |
• 2025 |
• Monograph

Looking beyond high optics associated with the return (often the deportation) of members of the former Afghan Republic to the country, the Contact Commission set up by the Taliban regime in 2022 comes across as a strategic move to present itself as a conciliatory and legitimate state entity on one hand and undercut the support base of the fragmented exiled political opposition on the other. This is best manifest in the fact that the Taliban has opened a pathway for exiled political opposition and former civil and military personnel to return to the country but without yielding any political space or making any provision to integrate the returnees into its governing structures. The commission’s efforts are stymied by violations of the ‘general amnesty’ announced for members of the former regime, lack of employment avenues for the educated non-Taliban workforce, and the ban on higher education for girls and work opportunities for women. In such a scenario, the commission cannot bridge the divide between the regime and the exiled or returnee Afghans, unless the regime itself acts as a bridge connecting diverse ethnicities and identities that make up the Afghan Nation.

• Vishal Chandra |
• 2025 |
• Occasional Papers

Unless the Taliban regime adopts relatively non-intrusive social policies and embraces people-centric approaches to governance, it will remain somewhat a mirror image of its old regressive self from the 1990s.

• Vishal Chandra |
• November 04, 2024 |
• Special Feature

With the leaders of the Taliban regime making a concerted effort to reach out to India, and India making it clear that it will remain committed to the people of Afghanistan, the ground appears to have been laid for engagement based on a working understanding on mutual “non-interference” and “non-threat”. However, the challenge lies in building trust between the two sides.

• Vishal Chandra |
• 2024 |
• Monograph

Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Mr Vishal Chandra’s commentary, “UNSC Delivers Strong Message to Proponents of Taliban and ‘Emirate’”, was published by All India Radio (AIR), on August 13, 2021.

Research Fellow, IDSA, Mr Vishal Chandra’s commentary, ‘Need for Strategic Clarity on Terrorism in Afghanistan’, was broadcast by the External Services Division of All India Radio (AIR) on April 26, 2017.

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The Quadrilateral Coordination Committee or Group comprising Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States held its first round of meeting in Islamabad on 11th January. The four-nation committee has been formed to help revive and coordinate talks between representatives of the Afghan Government and the Pakistan-based Taliban leadership. Pakistani delegation was led by its Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. The United States was represented by its Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard G. Olson and the Chinese Government by its Special Envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun.
This article was originally published in AIR World Service.