US Foreign Policy Towards Afghanistan. Brief from 2001 to 2022

Year 2023, Volume: 10 Issue: 6, 2697 - 2719, 23.01.2024

Mohammad Qasim Akbarı

https://doi.org/10.46868/atdd.2023.609

Abstract

In 2021, U.S. and international forces departed after nearly two decades of operations in Afghanistan; the internationally backed Afghan government and its military forces collapsed; and the Taliban, that formerly ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, retook power. The aftershocks of these events continue to reverberate within Afghanistan, throughout its region, and in the United States as publics and policymakers alike grapple with the reality of the Taliban’s renewed rule. When the United States, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, led a military campaign against Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban government that harbored and supported it. In the subsequent 20 years, the United States suffered over 22,000 military casualties (including about 2,400 fatalities) in Afghanistan, mostly at the hands of the robust and growing Taliban insurgency, and Congress appropriated approximately $144 billion for reconstruction and security forces there. At the same time, an elected Afghan government replaced the Taliban and, with significant U.S. and international support, made limited improvements in most measures of human development. This article examines the policy and strategies of the U.S in Afghanistan.

Keywords

Afghanistan, United States, Taliban, Foreign Policy, Human Rights

References

• Schroden, J. “Afghanistan’s Security Forces Versus the Taliban: A Net Assessment,” CTC Sentinel, January 2021.
• Kate Clark and Obaid Ali, “A Quarter of Afghanistan’s Districts Fall to the Taleban amid Calls for a ‘Second Resistance,’” Afghanistan Analysts Network, July 2, 2021.
• Dan De Luce, Mushtaq Yusufzai, and Saphora Smith, “Even the Taliban are surprised at how fast they’re advancing in Afghanistan,” NBC News, June 25, 2021.
• “Afghanistan: Taliban continue attacks on three major cities,” BBC, August 1, 2021.
• Susannah George, “Afghanistan’s military collapse: Illicit deals and mass desertions,” Washington Post, August 15, 2021.
• David Zucchino, “Collapse and Conquest: The Taliban Strategy That Seized Afghanistan,” New York Times, August 18, 2021.
• One analyst has described the Taliban’s government during the 1990s as “nominally interim.” “Who Will Run the Taliban Government?” International Crisis Group, September 9, 2021.
• S. K. Khan, “Taliban to implement monarch-era Constitution in Afghanistan,” Anadolu Ajansi, September 28, 2021; “Taliban plans to form ‘commission’ in 2022 to draft new constitution,” ANI, September 23, 2021.
• Fazelminallah Qazizai, “The Mysterious Public Appearances of the Taliban’s Supreme Leader,” Newlines, December 20, 2021.
• “Haibatullah Akhundzada: Shadowy Taliban supreme leader whose son was suicide bomber,” Reuters, September 7, 2021.
• Martine van Bijlert, “The Focus of the Taleban’s New Government: Internal cohesion, external dominance,” Afghanistan Analysts Network, September 12, 2021.
• Stephanie Findlay, “Haqqani network’s clever game culminates with Afghan government roles,” Financial Times, September 10, 2021.
• “Who Will Run the Taliban Government?” op. cit.
• Zia ur-Rehman and Emily Schmall, “The Taliban have staffing issues. They are looking for help in Pakistan,” New York Times, January 13, 2022.
• Khudai Noor Nasar, “Afghanistan: Taliban leaders in bust-up at presidential palace, sources say,” BBC, September 15, 2021.
• Ali Latifi, “How deep are divisions among the Taliban?” Al Jazeera, September 23, 2021.
• Andrew Watkins, “An Assessment of Taliban Rule at Three Months,” CTC Sentinel, November 2021.
• “How the Taliban engineered ‘political collapse’ of Afghanistan,” Reuters, August 17, 2021.
• Shadi Hamid, “Americans never understood Afghanistan like the Taliban did,” Brookings Institution, August 23, 2021.
• Loveday Morris and Ruby Mellen,“Portraits of fear and loss,” Washington Post, January 12, 2022.
• Trevor Filseth, “After Renegade Province’s Fall, Panjshir Resistance Leaders Surface in Tajikistan,” National Interest, September 23, 2021.