Escalation on the Durand Line

Image Source: Weaveravel – CC BY-SA 4.0

On Iran’s eastern flank, far from the Gulf states now in the crosshairs, another conflict continues to grow. Pakistan has declared what it now calls an “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, striking Kabul, Kandahar and eastern provinces. As it happens, the Durand Line between them was never just a boundary.

It was an arrogant gesture of empire. A straight ruler drawn across a relief map in 1893, slicing through mountains the colour of ash and oxidised copper...