Afghanistan has a unique and indeed, an unparallel significance in the strategic calculus of contemporary China. The geopolitics of this Chinese neighbourhood have four glaring peculiarities; security, strategic, political and economic. In the rapidly changing global environment, these aspects ask for a deeper cooperation between China and Afghanistan and for a regional integration of all those countries looking for regional peace and harmony, based on mutual respect and sovereignty. The central argument of this research is based upon the postulation that, in the post 2014 scenario, ‘constructive engagement with Afghanistan will be crucial for China’s national interests in Eurasia’. In the academic sphere, the argument is strongly supported by realist school of thought. It directly correlates with China’s own national security; a fragmented, fundamentalist and anarchic Afghanistan post 2014 would stand contrary to China’s interest of maintaining stability and defying the ongoing militancy in its autonomous region, Xinjiang. Whereas security may be the immediate objective, the long-term aim is economic and strategic cooperation with Afghanistan which is driven by the liberal paradigm which China finds as the most crucial and enduring. Indeed, pursuing a realist based national security and strategic paradigm and a liberalist based idea of economic cooperation with Afghanistan is China’s strategy towards Afghanistan.
