This study examines the role of soft security threats in the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The main research question is how software security crises have led to the collapse of the political system in Afghanistan by weakening political structures. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the Third World Security Theory, and the research method is descriptive-analytical and based on documentary sources. The research findings show that the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was the result of the interaction of three fundamental crises in the field of soft security: the crisis of political legitimacy, the crisis of political cohesion, and the crisis of governance capacity. The decline in political legitimacy at both the legal and social levels has weakened public acceptance and reduced citizens’ trust in the system. At the same time, the intensification of gaps and disagreements among political leaders within the power structure has destroyed political cohesion and brought the decision-making and policy-making process to a standstill. On the other hand, the government’s inability to design, coordinate, and effectively implement security policies has severely reduced governance capacity and weakened the system’s efficiency. The result of these three crises was the gradual erosion of the state's authority, a decrease in the ability to mobilize resources, and a sharp decline in social trust, paving the way for the collapse of the political structure in 2021. The research concludes that the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was rooted in deep software crises in the areas of legitimacy, cohesion, and political capacity, rather than being caused by purely hardware and military pressures; in such a way that the continuation of this situation fundamentally threatens the sustainability of any political system.
Mohammad Musa Sadeqi (Wed,) studied this question.