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Notes
1 Elliot Ackerman, The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan (New York: Penguin Press, 2022).
2 The White House, “Remarks by President Biden on the End of the War in Afghanistan,” August 31, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/31/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-end-of-the-war-in-afghanistan/; Costs of War Project, “Human and Budgetary Costs to Date of the U.S. War in Afghanistan, 2001–2022,” Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, August 2021, https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022.
3 Carter Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021); Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001–2016 (New York: Penguin Press, 2018); Carlotta Gall, The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014 (New York: First Mariner Books, 2014); Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes (New York: Picador, 2014); Craig Whitlock, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2021).
4 Monica Duffy Toft and Sidita Kushi, Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023); Stephanie Savell, “United States Counterterrorism Operations Under the Biden Administration, 2021–2023,” Costs of War Project, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, November 2023, https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2023/USCounterterrorismOperations; David Vine, Patterson Deppen, and Leah Bolger, “Drawdown: Improving U.S. and Global Security Through Military Base Closures Abroad,” Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Quincy Brief 16, September 2021, https://quincyinst.org/research/drawdown-improving-u-s-and-global-security-through-military-base-closures-abroad/.
5 Shawn Davies, Therése Pettersson, and Magnus Öberg, “Organized Violence 1989–2022, and the Return of Conflict Between States,” Journal of Peace Research 60, no. 4 (July 2023): 691–708, https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433231185169.
6 Notable exceptions include Dan Reiter, How Wars End (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009); Fred Charles Iklé, Every War Must End (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971); Monica Duffy Toft, Securing the Peace: The Durable Settlement of Civil Wars (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010); and Gideon Rose, How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).
7 Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History; 358; The White House, “Statement by the President on Afghanistan,” Office of the Press Secretary, May 27, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/27/statement-president-Afghanistan.
8 Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History, 351–357.
9 Ibid, 479–480; Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001–2016 (New York: Penguin Press, 2018).
10 Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History, 313.
11 Peter Baker, Mujib Mashal, and Michael Crowley, “How Trump’s Plan to Secretly Meet With the Taliban Came Together, and Fell Apart,” New York Times, September 8, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/08/world/asia/afghanistan-trump-camp-david-taliban.html; Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History.
12 Steve Coll and Adam Entous, “The Secret History of the U.S. Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan,” New Yorker, December 10, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/the-secret-history-of-the-us-diplomatic-failure-in-afghanistan.
13 The White House, “The U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan,” April 6, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf; US Department of State, “After Action Review on Afghanistan: January 2020–August 2021,” March 2022, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/State-AAR-AFG.pdf.
14 Craig Whitlock, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2021).
15 John Glaser and John Mueller, “Overcoming Inertia: Why It’s Time to End the War in Afghanistan,” Cato Institute, Policy Analysis 878, August 13, 2019, https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/overcoming-inertia-why-its-time-end-war-afghanistan.
16 Matt Waldman, “System Failure: The Underlying Causes of US Policy-Making Errors in Afghanistan,” International Affairs 89, no. 4 (2013): 825–843, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12047.
17 Stephen Watts, Patrick B. Johnston, Jennifer Kavanagh, Sean M. Zeigler, Bryan Frederick, Trevor Johnston, Karl P. Mueller, Astrid Stuth Cevallos, Nathan Chandler, Meagan L. Smith, Alexander Stephenson, and Julia A. Thompson, Limited Intervention: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Limited Stabilization, Limited Strike, and Containment Operations (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 2017); Alexander B. Downes and Lindsey A. O’Rourke, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Why Foreign-Imposed Regime Change Seldom Improves Interstate Relations,” International Security 41, no. 2 (2016): 43–89, https://doi.org/10.1162/ISEC_a_00256.
18 Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History.
19 Shane Harris, Dan Lamothe, Karen DeYoung, Souad Mekhennet, and Pamela Constable, “U.S. Kills al-Qaeda Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Drone Strike in Kabul,” Washington Post, August 2, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/01/zawahiri-al-qaeda-killed/.
20 Volker Türk, “Afghanistan: Human Rights in ‘State of Collapse,’ Warns Türk,” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, September 12, 2023, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/09/afghanistan-human-rights-state-collapse-warns-turk; International Crisis Group, “Taliban Restrictions on Women’s Rights Deepen Afghanistan’s Crisis,” Asia Report 329, February 23, 2023, https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/329-taliban-restrictions-womens-rights-deepen-afghanistans-crisis.
21 Anand Gopal, No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes (New York: Picador, 2014).
22 Max Boot, “Biden is Wrong. There Was Nothing Inevitable about the Disaster in Afghanistan,” Washington Post, August 18, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/18/biden-is-wrong-there-was-nothing-inevitable-about-disaster-afghanistan/; David Petraeus and Vance Serchuk, “The U.S. Abandoned Iraq. Don’t Repeat History in Afghanistan,” Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-s-abandoned-iraq-dont-repeat-history-in-afghanistan-11565385301.
23 Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper, and Michael D. Shear, “Biden Says Troops May Stay in Kabul Longer to Assist Evacuations,” New York Times, August 18, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/18/us/politics/military-afghan-evacuation.html; See also Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History, 469−470.
24 Gideon Rose, “The Exit Strategy Delusion,” Foreign Affairs 77, no. 1 (1998): 56–67, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/somalia/1998-01-01/exit-strategy-delusion.
25 David Kampf, “When Are Exit Strategies Viable?” War on the Rocks, October 14, 2019, https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/when-are-exit-strategies-viable/; For an important counterargument, see Adam Wunische, “The Lost Art of Exiting a War,” War on the Rocks, October 21, 2019, https://warontherocks.com/2019/10/the-lost-art-of-exiting-a-war/.
26 Alexandra Stark, “Ending Endless Wars Responsibly,” Inkstick, August 25, 2021, https://inkstickmedia.com/ending-endless-wars-responsibly/.
27 Alexandra T. Evans, A. Bradley Potter, “When Do Leaders Change Course? Theories of Success and the American Withdrawal from Beirut, 1983–1984,” Texas National Security Review 2, no. 2 (2019): 10–38, http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/1945.
28 Susan B. Glasser, “‘Not Our Tragedy’: The Taliban Are Coming Back, and America Is Still Leaving,” New Yorker, August 12, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/not-our-tragedy-the-taliban-are-coming-back-and-america-is-still-leaving.
29 Michael D. Shear, David E. Sanger, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Julian E. Barnes, and Lara Jakes, “Miscue After Miscue, U.S. Exit Plan Unravels,” New York Times, August 21, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/us/politics/biden-taliban-afghanistan-kabul.html.
30 Charli Carpenter, “A U.N. Peacekeeping Mission Is Afghanistan’s Best Hope,” World Politics Review, May 7, 2021, https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/after-us-war-afghanistan-peacekeeping-mission-deserves-a-chance/; Lise M. Howard, “A U.N. Peacekeeping Mission Could Make All the Difference in Afghanistan. Here’s Why,” Los Angeles Times, August 29, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-29/afghanistan-peacekeeping-mission-security-council; Melanne Verveer and Tanya Henderson, “Here Are Four Concrete Actions the U.S. Should Take Immediately to Help Afghan Women Activists,” Washington Post, August 13, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/13/afghanistan-taliban-women-us-refugees-protection/.
31 Gideon Rose, How Wars End: Why We Always Fight the Last Battle (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010).
32 The White House, “Remarks by President Biden on the Drawdown of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan,” July 8, 2021, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/08/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-drawdown-of-u-s-forces-in-afghanistan/.
33 U.S. Department of State, “After Action Review on Afghanistan: January 2020–August 2021,” March 2022, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/State-AAR-AFG.pdf; White House, “The U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan,” April 6, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/US-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan.pdf.
34 George Packer, “Biden’s Betrayal of Afghans Will Live in Infamy,” Atlantic, August 15, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/bidens-betrayal-of-afghans-will-live-in-infamy/619764/.
35 U.S. Department of State, “After Action Review on Afghanistan: January 2020–August 2021,” March 2022, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/State-AAR-AFG.pdf.
36 David Kampf, “Keeping Refugees Out Makes the United States Less Safe,” Foreign Policy, September 13, 2019, https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/13/keeping-refugees-out-makes-the-united-states-less-safe/.
37 Morgan Kaplan, “Thinking Critically About ‘By, With, Through’ in Syria, Iraq, and Beyond,” Lawfare, January 20, 2019, https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/thinking-critically-about-through-syria-iraq-and-beyond.
38 US Department of State, “After Action Review on Afghanistan: January 2020–August 2021,” March 2022, https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/State-AAR-AFG.pdf.
39 Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan: A History, 304.
40 Ibid, 398.