The Impact of US-Pakistan Relations on Afghanistan's Cyber Security

Abstract

This article explores how Washington's and Islamabad’s ever-changing friendship-and rivalry-directly shapes Afghans shaky digital defenses. It shows that geopolitics, mixed with either close cooperation or deep distrust between these two powers, spills over and weakens, or occasionally strengthens, cyber resilience in the vulnerable third neighbor. Using liberal and neo-liberal institutionalist lenses, the study situates Afghan cyber fragility within a broader history of regional strategy and uneven international institutions. The paper ends with long-term, multilateral policy ideas, urging the three countries to build a formal trilateral framework that partners them on training, information-sharing, and joint incident response.