Abstract
The relationship between the United States and the Taliban since 1994 can be categorized into four stages, that is, friendly engagement, disputes and escalation of differences, head-on military confrontation, and fighting while negotiating. This paper briefly outlines the historical context of the relationship, expounds on the main factors that have shaped US–Taliban relations at different stages, and explores three major variables, namely, practical interests, religions and ideologies, and third-party factors. This paper argues that the 2020 peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban might open a new chapter in US–Taliban relations, but the withdrawal of US troops does not mean the US will leave Afghanistan entirely. Given the complicated situations on the ground, the peace agreement does not guarantee real peace in Afghanistan, either.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The source of the contents of the agreement are cited in the referenced paper. No separate notes will be listed when citing the agreement later in this paper. The promised intra-Afghan negotiation did not happen on March 10, although it is reported to be held on June 29.
The US State Department later withdrew its statement of recognizing the Taliban.
Washington denied this reported accusation made by Iran.
This was the most severe terrorist attack against the US before the 9/11.
The Afghan Taliban is not mentioned in the National Strategy for Counterterrorism of the United States of America.
In 2013, the Taliban decided to open an office in Doha to facilitate its peace talks with the US. The Taliban used the name, the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”, at the unveiling ceremony. This was strongly protested by the Karzai government, resulting in a standstill in US-Taliban peace talks. Soon after, Washington apologized to the Afghan government for its negligence.
This paper chooses not to address the controversial question of to what extent the Taliban’s understanding of Sharia law conforms to the Four Sunni Schools and how many Afghan Muslims it can truly represent.
According to Niall McCarthy, the annual cost of stationing American troops in Afghanistan has been 50 billion to 77 billion US dollars since 2015.
References
Blackman, Ann, 1999. Season of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright. Trans. Xiaoping Li. Beijing: Contemporary World Publishing House.
Brisard, Jean-Charles, and Guillaume Dasquie. 2002. Forbidden Truth: US-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for bin Laden. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew Kazimierz. 1998. The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives. Trans. the China Institute of International Studies. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House.
Bush, George W. 2001. Presidential Address to the Nation. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011007-8.html. Accessed 20 February 2017.
Cheney, Dick, and Liz Cheney. 2019. In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir. Trans. Donglai Ren. Beijing: Yilin Press.
Clarke, Richard A. 2004. Against All Enemies. Trans. Feng Ni. Beijing: Economic Daily Press.
CNN. 2009. Transcript of Obama Speech on Afghanistan. https://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/01/obama.afghanistan.speech.transcript/index.html. Accessed 13 December 2009.
Fergusson, James. 2010. Taliban: The Unknown Enemy. Cambridge: Da Capo Press.
Garg, Suresh. 2010. Taliban: A Face of Terrorism. New Delhi: Axis Publications.
Ghufran, Nasreen. 2001. The Taliban and the Civil War Entanglement in Afghanistan. Asian Survey 41 (3): 462–487.
Gopal, Anand. 2015. No Good Men among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Hoffman, Tod. 2014. Al-Qaeda Declares War: The African Embassy Bombings and America’s Search for Justice. ForeEdge.
Marsden, Peter. 1998. The Taliban: War, Religion and the New Order in Afghanistan. London: Zed Books Ltd.
McCarthy, Niall. 2019. The Annual Cost of the War in Afghanistan Since 2001. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2019/09/12/the-annual-cost-of-the-war-in-afghanistan-since-2001-infographic/#7dffdafc1971. Accessed 1 March 2020.
Misdaq, Nabi. 2006. Afghanistan: Political Frailty and External Interference. London: Routledge.
O’Connell, Aaron B. 2017. Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds in Afghanistan. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Rashid, Ahmed. 2015. Taliban. Trans. Yingxiang Zhong. Chongqing: Chongqing Publishing Group.
Rubin, Barnett R. 2013. Afghanistan from the Cold War Through the War on Terror. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rubin, Barry, and Judith Colp Rubin (eds.). 2002. Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scheuer, Michael. 2011. Osama bin Laden. New York: Oxford University Press.
TOLOnews. 2019. Peace Talks with Taliban Are Dead: Trump. https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan/peace-talks-taliban-are-dead-trump. Accessed 11 September 2019.
TOLOnews. 2020. US-Taliban Deal Has Secret Elements: Pompeo. https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/us-taliban-deal-has-secret-elements-pompeo. Accessed 2 March 2020.
U.S. Department of State. 2000–2018. Patterns of Global Terrorism (2000–2003) and Country Reports on Terrorism (2004–2017). https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/. Last accessed 5 November 2019.
The White House. 2017. Remarks by President Trump on the Strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-strategy-afghanistan-south-asia/. Accessed 21 August 2017.
The White House. 2018. National Strategy for Counterterrorism of the United States of America. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NSCT.pdf. Accessed 13 December 2018.
Xiang, Shujun[向书军]. 1996. Oil and Natural Gas Resources and Pipeline Projects of Turkmenistan (土库曼斯坦石油天然气资源及其管道工程). Russian Central Asian & East European Market (俄罗斯中亚东欧市场) 2: 49–50.
U.S. Department of State. 2020. Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States as a State and is Known as the Taliban and the United States of America. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf. Accessed 1 March 2020.
World Bank. 2020. The World Bank Data: Turkmenistan. https://data.worldbank.org/country/turkmenistan?view=chart. Accessed 11 February 2020.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qian, X. On the relations between the US and the Afghan Taliban. China Int Strategy Rev. 2, 138–153 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42533-020-00045-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42533-020-00045-9