Did the return of the Taliban to power in the summer of 2021 mark the end of Afghanistan’s dynamic cross-border relations with Central Asia? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Tajikistan–Afghanistan and Uzbekistan-Afghanistan borderlands before, during, and after the Taliban’s resurgence, this presentation argues that major political turbulence does not result in the alienation of border regions or the development of illegal activities. Instead, institutionalized interactions endure despite border closures, political instability, and the absence of formal diplomatic engagement between the respective governments. Central to these developments are the pragmatic attitude of Central Asian authorities and non-state actors who emerge as key agents facilitating people-to-people contacts.
Mélanie Sadozaï is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Regensburg (Germany). Her work focuses on the many forms of cross‑border relations between Central Asia and Afghanistan, with a focus on the Pamir region, based on ethnographic research conducted there since 2014. Her first book, drawn from her doctoral dissertation, is titled Tajikistan–Afghanistan: A Border at the Edge of the Pamirs (Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée, 2026, published in French). She is also leading a project funded by the Leibniz Association, titled "The Legal Constitutions of Borders", where she and her team investigate the nexus between the law and border realities along three borderlands of Europe.