Afghanistan: Another American Tragedy of Strategic Miscalculations

Abstract

The United States political and military efforts in Afghanistan follow the post-World-War-II pattern of failed policies, tactical military victories with strategic losses, and Western-imposed democratic governance. The dynamic and complex conditions of Afghanistan contain valuable political and strategic lessons for military practitioners desiring to study and potentially prevent another limited armed conflict ultimately destined for failure. To develop successful political and strategic objectives, US civilian and military leadership should assess the influence of the target states political and strategic culture to inform US political decision-making and rules of war. Focusing on Afghanistan, this paper explores the history that produced the political and strategic culture in existence today, the dynamic forces exerting influence on US nation-building efforts, and the miscalculations in the current US approach to Afghan-governance.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 09, 2014
Accession Number
AD1023606

Entities

People

  • Kliff Mosley

Organizations

  • Air Command and Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Doctrine
  • Education
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • International Organizations
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Science
  • National Governments
  • National Politics
  • Public Administration
  • United States
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History
  • Political science

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies