5 May 2022

The United States Withdrawal from Afghanistan after Two Decades of a Global War on Terrorism


The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, following a war on terrorism waged over for two decades. The September 11, 2001 attacks prompted a cognitive change within the US administration and in the foreign policy of the United States and its allies. The pursuit of the terrorist organizations responsible for the deadly attacks, and the countries and regimes that protected them, began during the term of President George W. Bush and continued under the presidents who succeeded him.

An examination of the policies on the war in Afghanistan followed by Presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden shows prominent differences in their rhetoric, which was aimed at showing that their policy was superior to that of their predecessors. In practice, however, activity surrounding the war in Afghanistan featured mainly continuity. Administrations from the two opposing political camps encountered a dynamic situation and concrete events that demanded a response, and over the years additional approaches emerged in the strategy in the war on terror (Jenkins, 2017; Levitt, 2021).

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