The territorial jurisdiction of the region that currently covers Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan has seen the emergence of an interdependent social economy due to the Chabahar-Gwadar MoU 2016 and the China-Iran-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CICSP). This region is the core of complex social economies where ethnic communities experience diverse socioeconomic cultures. However, these cultures have the potential to positively or negatively affect regional economic cooperation, and thus, there is a need for state structures that facilitate complex social economies within the context of social oneness, mutualism, political development, sustainable development goals, and international relations.

To achieve this idealistic philosophy, the constitutional experts in the three states conducted a comparative constitutional review. The Iranian constitution was found to fulfill the relevant requirements in all respects. However, the Afghan constitution was considered to be a neo-colonial tool of the United States and NATO, and there was a dire need for patriotic leadership. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, there was also a need to change the existing constitution to such an extent that the state structure could fulfill the relevant essentials without any political hurdles.

Pakistan’s political and military leadership worked on strengthening bilateral partnerships and establishing a new regional alliance with China, Iran, and Russia. However, all of them needed to have a friendly government in Afghanistan that would not be a graven image of the United States and NATO. Therefore, Iran, Russia, and China engaged in the Afghan Peace Process, while Pakistan was already backing the Afghan Taliban at this forum.

Parallel to the proxy lines of Western war economies, the Russian military inaugurated a bounty program to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing Americans and other allied service members until US and NATO troops would withdraw from Afghanistan. The existence of this alleged program was first reported in the media in 2020 and raised as an issue during the US 59th quadrennial presidential election campaign in 2020.

The Washington Post reported that intelligence suggesting the existence of a bounty operation dated back to as early as 2018. White House officials in the Trump administration were informed of the intelligence reports in early 2019. US intelligence agencies had assessed several months earlier that Unit 29155 of the Russian military intelligence agency GRU had secretly offered bounties to Taliban-associated militants to kill US troops and other coalition personnel in Afghanistan, including during peace talks with the Taliban. However, US Defense Department officials subsequently reported that US military intelligence was unable to corroborate the reported program. In April 2021, the US government reported that the US intelligence community had only “low to moderate confidence” in the bounty program allegations.

Thus, it is analyzed that the emergence of interdependent social economies in the region of Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan is a complex process that requires state structures that facilitate complex social economies within the context of social oneness, mutualism, political development, sustainable development goals, and international relations. The Afghan Peace Process is a significant step towards achieving this goal, and it requires the support of all regional and international stakeholders.

Note: This article is written by Abdul-Wahid Awan