Any U.S. recognition of Taliban rule is unlikely in the near term — it would infuriate Congress and damage the White House politically. The administration has, however, been dangling the prospect of recognition in hopes of shaping the new Afghan regime’s behavior.

But the understandable U.S. reluctance to recognize the new government could spawn confusion in the years ahead everywhere from courtrooms to summit corridors, not to mention complicate dealings with a country whose population relies heavily on foreign aid. Over time, as it has with some other countries, the U.S. might find itself tacitly recognizing a Taliban government even if it never explicitly does so.

“No one is arguing that the state of Afghanistan has ceased to exist, and the rest of the world can’t avoid interacting with it,” said Scott Anderson, a former State Department lawyer who has studied the topic of government recognition. “At some point, people are going to have to acknowledge some entity as having the capacity to speak for Afghanistan in exercising its rights or obligations.”