Overview

"An incisive, authoritative account of the West's failures in Afghanistan, from 9/11 to the fall of Kabul In 1958, Richard Nixon described Afghanistan as ""unconquerable."" On 15th August 2021, he was proven right. After twenty years of intervention, US and NATO forces retreated, enabling the Taliban to return to power. Tens of thousands were killed in the long, unwinnable war, and millions more were displaced—leaving the future of Afghanistan hanging in the balance. Leading expert Amin Saikal traces the full story of America's intervention, from 9/11 to the present crisis. After an initial swift military strike, the US became embroiled in a drawn-out struggle to change Afghanistan but failed to achieve its aims. Saikal shows how this failure was underlined by protracted attempts to capture Osama bin Laden, an inability to secure a viable government via ""democracy promotion"" efforts, and lack of wider strategy in the ""war on terror."" How to Lose a War offers an insightful account of one of the US's most significant foreign policy failures—and considers its dire consequences for the people of Afghanistan."

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9780300266245

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Reviews

"“A compelling and meticulously documented analysis, with much new eyewitness material, of the abject policy and governance failures of successive US administrations and their Afghan leadership proteges. One of the most depressing chapters of modern world history, and Saikal clearly articulates the lessons to be learned from it.”—Gareth Evans, Former Australian Foreign Minister, and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group    “Saikal offers us a credible and accessible perspective on how the outsiders’ failure of imagination, coupled with the incompetence and corruption of the Afghan political elite, brought us to where we stand today. The lessons Saikal draws are as insightful as they are intriguing, worth everyone’s attention.”—Hassan Abbas, author of The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan After Americans Left ​  “An excellent analysis of the failures of US policy in Afghanistan. It incisively explains how America’s ambitions exceeded its grasp and, despite lofty ideals, became embroiled in frictions that it poorly understood and tragically compounded.”—James Piscatori, co-author of Muslim Politics ""Relying on well-placed insider sources, Amin Saikal offers a rigorous and gripping narrative of why the U.S. lost the war in Afghanistan. The book delves deep into the complex reasons for the U.S. policy failure and provides a sobering assessment of the lessons learned.""—Anne Likuski, author of Al-Qaida in Afghanistan  "

Author Information

Amin Saikal is emeritus professor and founding director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University, and adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia. He is an Afghanistan and Middle East specialist, and the author of Iran Rising, Zone of Crisis, and Modern Afghanistan.

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