Invading Afghanistan, 1838-2006: Politics and Pacification

Abstract

This article is a comparative examination of foreign invasions of Afghanistan since 1838. It assesses why such invasions were launched, why they succeeded or failed, and how Afghans responded to them. It demonstrates that intelligence failures, and confused and over-optimistic policy, shaped all such decisions to invade; that in most cases, Afghans were not so much collaborators or resisters as opportunists; that not all invasions failed, while those which failed, did so less because of damage inflicted by Afghans, than because of the limited value of Afghanistan as an interest. The article concludes by examining current western involvement in Afghanistan in the broader context of this history.