Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

What Went Wrong: Why The Us’S State-Building Efforts Failed In The War In Afghanistan, Jeffrey S. Witter

Political Science Honors Projects

The security situation has deteriorated rapidly in Afghanistan following the end of NATO’s combat mission in 2014. The Taliban has seized control of large swathes of the country, and many predict that the country will remain in a violent state of civil war for years to come. The time has come to critically examine some of the intellectual underpinnings of the war in order to understand why the US’s mission to bring about a peaceful and stable Afghanistan has failed. This project will answer the question “Why did state-building fail in Afghanistan?” I explore the divide between two intellectual schools …