In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

IN THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES

ALSO BY SETH G. JONES

The Rise of European Security Cooperation

IN THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES

America’s War in Afghanistan

SETH G. JONES

W. W. NORTON & COMPANY

New York London

Copyright © 2009 by Seth G. Jones

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-0-393-07142-9

To those

struggling for peace

in Afghanistan

LIST OF MAPS AND GRAPHS

Figure 1.1

Map of Afghanistan

Figure 2.1

Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

Figure 4.1

Taliban Conquest of Afghanistan

Figure 6.1

Key Engagements against Taliban and al Qa’ida

Figure 6.2

Pakistan’s Tribal Agencies

Figure 7.1

Peak International Military Presence Per Capita

Figure 7.2

Peak International Police Presence Per Capita

Figure 7.3

International Financial Assistance Per Capita over First Two Years

Figure 8.1

U.S. and Coalition Battlefield Geometry, May 2004

Figure 11.1

Opium Poppy Cultivation, 1991–2008

Figure 13.1

The Insurgent Fronts

Figure 14.1

Stages of NATO Expansion, 2007

CHRONOLOGY

1839–1842 First Anglo-Afghan War, which results in a crushing defeat for the British. The departing force is reduced from 16,000 to one British soldier.

1878–1880 Second Anglo-Afghan War culminates in the Battle of Kandahar, in which British forces decisively defeat Ayub Khan in September 1880.

1893 Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, British foreign secretary of India, signs an agreement with the Afghan ruler, Amir Abdur Rehman Khan, separating Afghanistan from British India on November 12. The demarcation is known as the Durand Line.

1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War, which leads to the Treaty of Rawalpindi on August 8, recognizing Afghan independence.

1929 King Amanullah Khan, who had led Afghanistan to independence and attempted to modernize the country, is overthrown by Habibullah Kalakani, a Tajik. Kalikani is overthrown several months later, marking the start of a dynasty spanning five decades by the Pashtun Musahiban family. The first leader is Muhammad Nadir Shah.

1933 Upon the assassination of Muhammad Nadir Shah, his son, Zahir Shah, takes over at the age of nineteen, beginning one of Afghanistan’s longest periods of stability in recent times. For thirty years, however, Zahir Shah remains in the background while his relatives run the government.

1963 Zahir Shah takes control of Afghanistan and introduces an era of modernity and democratic freedom.

1973 On July 16, Zahir Shah is overthrown in a coup d’etat engineered by his cousin,