Afghanistan : How the West Lost Its Way

by Tim Bird and Alex Marshall

• ISBN13: 9780300154573
• ISBN10: 0300154577
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2011-06-28
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

In October 2001, NATO forces invaded Afghanistan. Their initial aim, to topple the Taliban regime and replace it with a more democratic government aligned to Western interests, was swiftly achieved. However, stabilizing the country in the ensuing years has proven much more difficult. Despite billions of dollars in aid and military expenditure, Afghanistan remains a nation riddled with warlords, the world's major heroin producer, and the site of a seemingly endless conflict between Islamist militants and NATO forces. In this timely and important book, Tim Bird and Alex Marshall offer a panoramic view of international involvement in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2011. Tackling the subject matter as a whole, Bird and Marshall weave together analysis of military strategy, regional context, aid policy, the Afghan government, and the many disagreements between and within the Western powers involved in the intervention. Given the complicating factors of the heroin trade, unwelcoming terrain, and precarious relations with Pakistan, the authors acknowledge the ways in which Afghanistan has presented unique challenges for its foreign invaders. Ultimately, however, they argue that the international community has failed in its self-imposed effort to solve Afghanistan's problems and that there are broader lessons to be learned from their struggle, particularly in terms of counterinsurgency and the ever-complicated work of "nation-building." The overarching feature of the intervention, they argue, has been an absence of strategic clarity and coherence.

Author Biography

Tim Bird is a lecturer at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and the Defence Studies Department, King's College, London. He lives in southern England. Alex Marshall is Lecturer in History in the War Studies Department of the University of Glasgow. He lives in Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The great enigma: Afghanistan in historical context	p. 9
9/11 and the response, 11-25 September 2001	p. 47
'Boots on the ground': From the arrival of the CIA to the emergency Loya Jirga, 26 September 2001-June 2002	p. 73
'Taking the eye off the ball?' The roots of Taliban revival in Afghanistan, 2002-05	p. 111
Return to the 'forgotten war', 2006-08	p. 153
The Pakistan problem	p. 185
Silver bullets and the search for an exit, 2009-11	p. 217
Conclusion	p. 249
Notes	p. 263
Bibliography	p. 289
Index	p. 299
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