Skip to main content
January/February 2023 cover
Foreign Affairs Magazine Homepage
Subscribe
Explore Subscribe
  • All Articles
  • Books & Reviews
  • Podcast
  • Anthologies
  • Author Directory
  • This Day in History
  • Events
  • Biden Administration
  • War in Ukraine
  • Coronavirus
  • Climate Change
  • Cybersecurity
  • Nationalism
  • Democratization
  • Economics
  • Globalization
  • Migration
  • U.S. Foreign Policy
  • War & Military Strategy
  • United States
  • Ukraine
  • Russia
  • China
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • United Kingdom
  • India
  • Afghanistan
  • Ethiopia
  • View All Regions
  • Essays
  • Snapshots
  • Articles with Audio
  • Capsule Reviews
  • Review Essays
  • Ask the Experts
  • Reading Lists
  • Interviews
  • Responses
  • 1920s
  • 1930s
  • 1940s
  • 1950s
  • 1960s
  • 1970s
  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s
  • 2010s
  • 2020s
  • Newsletters
  • Customer Service
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Subscriber Resources
  • Feedback
  • Institutional Subscriptions
  • Gift a Subscription
  • Contact
  • Advertise

Follow Us

Foreign Affairs Magazine Homepage
Explore
My Account Sign In

  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Books & Reviews
  • Anthologies
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
Search
Subscribe
Subscribe Sign in
Subscribe to newsletter
No, thanks
November/December 2014 Issue

Lessons from a decade of war

Adrees Latif / Courtesy Reuters A school boy, carrying a backpack, walks past burning fuel tankers, October 7, 2010. Expand or collapse the hero image description
A Hard Education
  • November/December 2014
  • 01 More Small Wars
  • 02 Pick Your Battles
  • 03 Withdrawal Symptoms
  • 04 Homeward Bound?
  • 05 The Good War?

What’s Inside

Learning From Afghanistan and Iraq


November/December 2014
Sign in and save to read later
Share
Print this article
Save
Send by email
Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Get a link
Request Reprint Permissions

After 13 years of war, the loss of many thousands of lives, and the expenditure of trillions of dollars, what has the United States learned? The answer depends on not only who is asking but when. The story of the Iraq war would have different endings, and morals, if told in 2003, 2006, 2011, or 2014, and it will continue to evolve. As for Afghanistan, the narrative there has also shifted over time, and the ending also remains in doubt. Neither disaster has been unmitigated. But few would argue that Washington’s approach to either has been a success worth emulating. So the most important question today is what can be learned from the failures.

Two of our authors, Max Boot and Richard Betts, offer starkly different answers. Boot argues that even though Washington is fed up with counterinsurgencies, it will still end up waging more of them down the road, and so should focus on learning how to fight them better. Betts, by contrast, thinks Washington should go in the opposite direction: fighting fewer and more traditional wars and avoiding getting entangled in the domestic politics of chaotic countries on the strategic periphery. 

Rick Brennan, for his part, argues that even the best planning is worthless if not ably executed and updated as conditions change. Iraq’s current turmoil, he writes, is the predictable result of the United States’ premature exit, and he worries that a similar fate awaits Afghanistan.

As the world grapples with the medieval brutality of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or isis, meanwhile, many in the United States and Europe have begun panicking at the thought that battle-hardened Western-born jihadists may return to unleash havoc at home. Daniel Byman and Jeremy Shapiro argue that such fears are overblown: as the last decade has shown, the threat of such blowback is often overhyped. Returning jihadists do pose dangers, they explain, but familiar and manageable ones.

Rounding out our package, Peter Tomsen assesses a new crop of books on the war in Afghanistan. These works help explain why, despite all of the West’s efforts, that country’s future remains up for grabs, and Tomsen, like Brennan, worries that Afghanistan could slide back into full-scale civil war unless it gets serious and sustained help from Washington.

Embarking on the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a decade ago, U.S. officials basked in their power and brimmed with self-confidence. They never dreamed that, all these years later, their humbled successors would still be grappling with the same basic questions of whether and how to secure and stabilize those lands. We can only hope that current and future policymakers can learn from the mistakes and leave a better legacy.

—Gideon Rose and Jonathan Tepperman

More:
United States Afghanistan Iraq War & Military Strategy Branches of Government

Most-Read Articles

America’s China Policy Is Not Working

The Dangers of a Broad Decoupling

Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Kennan’s Warning on Ukraine

Ambition, Insecurity, and the Perils of Independence

Frank Costigliola

Don’t Fear Putin’s Demise

Victory for Ukraine, Democracy for Russia

Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia?

Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

Get the Magazine

Save up to 55%

on Foreign Affairs magazine!
Subscribe

Foreign Affairs

Weekly Newsletter

Get in-depth analysis delivered right to your inbox
About
About Us Staff Events Work at Foreign Affairs Podcast
Contact
Customer Service Contact Us Submissions Permissions Advertise Press Center Leave Us Feedback Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription
Subscriptions Group Subscriptions My Account Give a Gift Donate Download iOS App Newsletters Download Android App
Follow
Graduate School Forum
Council on Foreign Relations

From the
publishers of
Foreign Affairs

Sort Out Granular Issues to Bolster U.S.-India Ties
by Author:Manjari Chatterjee Miller
Women This Week: Women’s Rights Victory in Sierra Leone
Staying Neutral on Ukraine Easier Said Than Done for African States

Published by the Council on Foreign Relations

Privacy Policy Terms of Use

©2023 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Loading Loading