The genesis of a forgotten war
Containment in Afghanistan 1947–1956
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11222281 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas A Borer (Virginia Tech, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 343-356 |
| Publication date | 1992-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Comparative Strategy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-5933 • E-ISSN: 1521-0448 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01495939208402880 |
| OpenAlex | W1988878541 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
After a decade of steady U.S. military aid to the Mujahedin, the final Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan was seen by many Western observers as a concrete affirmation of the continued validity of containment as the primary doctrine in U.S. foreign policy. The following essay challenges this positive conclusion by investigating the roots of containment in South Asia in the first decade following World War II. It is argued that containment was an inadequate policy guide for the convoluted politics of South Asia and actually served to aggravate political tensions between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. In doing so, the United States unwittingly drove both Afghanistan and India into partnership with the USSR, thus creating the exact scenarios that containment was intended to prevent
Ancient history · Cold war · Containment (computer programming · Development economics · Doctrine · Economics · Foreign policy · General partnership · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · South asia · History · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Military History and Strategy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |