Afghan policy of President Barack Obama

Abstract

Afghanistan is a country that has been in a state of military conflict for more than one decade.
However, precisely in connection with the seizure of the main part of Afghanistan by the Islamist Taliban
movement in the 1990s this state began to be seen as a key threat to the security of not only the Central Asian
region but the entire world. The American campaign to eliminate international terrorism in Afghanistan, which
began after the 9/11 attacks continued until August 31, 2021, when the US Armed Forces were completely
withdrawn from that country. At the same time, the most acute issue of assessing the Afghan policy of the
United States and its results arose during the reign of Barack Obama (2009-2016).
At the time of B. Obama’s inauguration as president, the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan
approached one trillion US dollars. As president, Obama was most interested in building and developing his
own country. Its wealth is the basis of power, including the military one, the efforts of diplomats. This would
enable the United States to compete successfully with other states in the 21st century.
After his inauguration, Obama identified the key points of his administration’s Afghan strategy. First, the
policy must be «comprehensive», the war must be accompanied by efforts to achieve economic and social
transformation in Afghanistan. Second, Obama said what many had already expected from the outgoing Bush
Jr. administration – «an exit strategy». This meant that at the moment the goal was achieved, the United States
had to leave Afghanistan on time. The aim of the strategy is formulated as follows: the complete destruction of
the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, which is based in neighboring Pakistan. The third is to admit the obvious
that the key role in Afghanistan is played by the same Pakistan, therefore this is already the «Afghan-Pakistani
policy of the United States», and its implementation requires «regional efforts».
Based on the study of the US National Security Strategies of 2010 and 2015 and other official documents, the
article presents the opinions of authors dealing with the stated problems. The authors attempted to identify the
features of Obama’s foreign policy course in the Afghan direction, its achievements, and its failures.