Securitizing the Neighbor: Anti-Pakistan Rhetoric and State Legitimation in Afghanistan, 2001-2025

This paper examines how anti-Pakistan discourse became institutionalized as a tool of state legitimation in Afghanistan across three regimes. Using qualitative analysis of 132 speeches, parliamentary debates, media editorials, and diaspora statements (2001-2025), we show how Afghan elites framed Pakistan as an existential threat to compensate for weak governance, mobilize cross-ethnic support, and perform sovereignty. Rather than treating securitisation as elite-driven, the paper traces its societal diffusion through media framing, parliamentary ritualisation, and diaspora digital activism, showing how crisis rhetoric became taken-for-granted common sense. The Taliban’s post-2021 “controlled securitisation” reproduces this discourse despite historical dependence on Pakistan, highlighting its structural role in Afghan politics. Drawing on Constructivism and Securitisation Theory, we argue that Pakistan functions as Afghanistan’s constitutive “Other,” shaping domestic political order while narrowing diplomatic options. The study advances mid-range theory on discursive institutionalisation in weak states and identifies pathways for de-securitisation.