The American War in Afghanistan: A History is a nonfiction historical account of the United States war in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2020. It was written by Carter Malkasian and published in 2021 by Oxford University Press. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] In 2022 the author received the Lionel Gelber Prize for this book. [6]
This book is a comprehensive history of the war, arguing that one of the primary reasons for the Taliban's success was their deep connection to the religious and social identity of Afghanistan, [7] and that the inability of the American-supported Afghan government to attract popular support and retain control of the country [8] was due to Afghans’ viewing the American military as a foreign occupying power, writing, "The very presence of Americans in Afghanistan trod on what it meant to be Afghan… Any Afghan government, however good, however democratic, was going to be imperiled as long as it was aligned with the United States." [9]
The Taliban, which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pashtun nationalist political movement in Afghanistan. It ruled approximately three-quarters of the country from 1996 to 2001, before being overthrown following the United States invasion. It recaptured Kabul on 15 August 2021 after nearly 20 years of insurgency, and currently controls all of the country, although its government has not yet been recognized by any country. The Taliban government has been criticized for restricting human rights in Afghanistan, including the right of women and girls to work and to have an education.
Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation in September 2018. President Joseph R. Biden asked Khalilzad to continue in this position after the 2020 presidential election. Khalilzad resigned as U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation in October 2021. Khailzad was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from 2007 to 2009. Khalilzad was the highest ranking Muslim-American in government at the time he left the position. Prior to this, Khalilzad served in the Bush administration as Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2004 to 2005 and Ambassador to Iraq from 2005 to 2007.
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban government from power. The United Kingdom was a key ally of the United States, offering support for military action from the start of invasion preparations. The invasion came after the Afghan Civil War's 1996–2001 phase between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance groups, resulting in the Taliban controlling 80% of the country by 2001. The invasion became the first phase of the 20-year-long War in Afghanistan and marked the beginning of the American-led War on Terror.
Relations between Afghanistan and the United States began in 1921 under the leaderships of Amanullah Khan and Warren G. Harding, respectively. The first contact between the two nations occurred further back in the 1830s when the first recorded person from the United States explored Afghanistan. The United States government foreign aid program provided about $500 million in aid for economic development; the aid ended before the 1978 Saur Revolution. The Soviet invasion starting in December 1979 was a turning point in the Cold War, when the United States started to financially support the Afghan resistance. The country, under both the Carter and Reagan administrations committed $3 billion dollars in financial and diplomatic support to the anti-Soviet Mujahideen forces. Beginning in 1980, the United States began admitting thousands of Afghan refugees for resettlement, and provided money and weapons to the Mujahideen through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The USSR withdrew its troops in 1989.
Sher Mohammed Akhundzada is a tribal leader who was the Governor of Helmand in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2005.
The Lionel Gelber Prize is a literary award for English non-fiction books on foreign policy. Founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, the prize awards "the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues." A prize of CA$15,000 is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by the Lionel Gelber Foundation, in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Seth G. Jones is an academic, political scientist and author. Jones is most renowned for his work on counterinsurgency and counterterrorism; much of his published material and media presence relates to US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in confronting al Qa'ida. He is currently a Fellow and Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China: An Investigative History (1999) is a history of international relations written by journalist Patrick Tyler. The book details high level relations between the United States and China from the Nixon administration to the Clinton Administration. Primarily focused on the actions and motives of members of the president's cabinet and their counterparts in China, the book illustrates the large role personal politics and bureaucratic infighting had on the direction of China policy in the United States. Well received in the popular press, the book garnered mixed reviews in scholarly journals. However, the book won both the Lionel Gelber Prize and the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award in 2000.
The War in Afghanistan was an armed conflict in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021. It began when an international military coalition, led by the United States, launched an invasion of Afghanistan, subsequently toppling the Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate and establishing the internationally recognized Islamic Republic three years later. The nearly 20-year-long conflict ultimately ended with the 2021 Taliban offensive, which overthrew the Islamic Republic, and re-established the Islamic Emirate. It was the longest war in the military history of the United States, surpassing the length of the Vietnam War (1955–1975) by approximately six months.
The Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (HPRT) was established in September 2004. It was led by the US until 1 May 2006, when this responsibility was handed to the UK. HPRT ceased operations in Lashkar Gah on 27 December 2013.
The Battle of Garmsir was a battle between U.S. Marines and other ISAF coalition forces, and Taliban insurgents in Garmsir, southern Afghanistan. It was part of the ongoing Helmand Province campaign and took place primarily between 2007 and 2011. By the end of December 2007, the situation on the ground had reached a stalemate, and a de facto border had been established. In order to break this stalemate Operation Asada Wosa was undertaken 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, the battalion landing team for the 24th MEU along with elements from 2nd Reconnaissance Bn started their combat operations with an attack on the Taliban-held town of Garmsir on 28 April. The operation was carried out in conjunction with British troops of the 16 Air Assault Brigade. Taliban forces withdrew from the town as a result of the assault and took up a position further south.
Bahrāmcha (Balochi بھرام چاه}}) is the center of Dishu District in the southern part of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
The Armed Forces of theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Armed Forces and the Afghan Armed Forces, is the military of Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban government from 1996 to 2001 and since August 2021. The Taliban created the first iteration of the armed forces in 1997 after taking over Afghanistan following the end of the Afghan Civil War which raged between 1992 and 1996. However, the first iteration of the armed forces was dissolved in 2001 after the downfall of the first Taliban government following the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was officially reestablished on November 8, 2021 after the Taliban's victory in the War in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 following the recapture of Kabul and the collapse of the U.S.-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its Afghan National Army as a whole, with the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after being out of power for 20 years.
This article summarizes the history of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
Carter Malkasian is a historian and former adviser to American military commanders in Afghanistan.
On 1 July 2002 in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, the United States Air Force carried out an airstrike on a wedding party in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. An AC130 attack plane and a B-52 bomber mistook the traditional nighttime wedding celebration as a gathering of Taliban. Weapons are often shot at weddings, and thus the presence of weapons and gunfire at a wedding is not unusual. The US planes thought they were being targeted by anti-aircraft fire and attacked. Four villages were attacked and 54 civilians were killed, with 50 more injured. The Afghan government backed up that it was a wedding, and that guests had fired bullets into the air in celebration. The attack is cited as one of many errors made by Coalition forces in the early days of the Afghan War, which increasingly drove more Afghans to fight for the Taliban. The killing of innocent family members demands revenge in the Pashtunwali tradition.
Jay Taylor is a retired U.S. foreign service agent, academic, documentarian, and writer. He is best known for writing The Generalissimo, a biography of Chiang Kai-Shek which won the Lionel Gelber Prize for the best English non-fiction book on Foreign Policy in 2010.
A Region in Turmoil: South Asian Conflicts since 1947 is a scholarly nonfiction book written by Rob Johnson and published by Reaktion Books, London, in 2005.
The following is an outline of the series of events that led up the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021).
The 20-year-long War in Afghanistan had a number of significant impacts on Afghan society.