US Withdrawal from Afghanistan: An Assessment of Internal and External Implications

Abstract

Following the 9/11 Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush had announced a war against Al-Qaeda and sent the US-NATO forces to Afghanistan. Later the Donald Trump government signed a peace pact with Afghan Taliban in February 2020 in Doha and decided extraction from Afghanistan. This withdrawal decision closed about a two-decades long chapter between the two countries. The Taliban control over Afghanistan post-withdrawal scenario in Afghanistan brought forth internal and external problems as they have not yet announced any sound strategy or policy to mitigate the governance and foreign policy crises. This situation has created a sense of insecurity in South Asia. Here, few questions that demand investigation are: (a) Why the US-NATO troops hastily withdrew Afghanistan? (b) How the US-NATO troops’ pullout instantaneous decision created copious challenges for the Afghan populace? (c) How this pullout created security challenges for the neighboring states? The present study aims to assess the US-NATO forces withdrawal from Afghanistan and its internal and external implications.