Zeynep Şahin Mencütek is currently involved in the Horizon Europe Project, “Decentring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond” (GAPs). One of the work packages she lead, along with colleagues from the University of Glasgow (Gerasimos Tsourapas and Samet Apaydın), focuses on the international cooperation dimension of the ‘coerced’ return …

The distinction between hard and soft power has long been a classic tool in international relations research. In a world that has undoubtedly become more conflictual, the importance of soft power appears to be diminishing at first glance.

Nearly twenty years of Western intervention in Afghanistan ended on August 15, 2021, when the Taliban returned to power. The disastrous failure of Western involvement was a result of the permanent and often violent conflict between tradition and modernity that has characterised Afghanistan’s society for almost a century and a half.