‘Declinism’ and discourses of decline - the end of the war in Afghanistan and the limits of American power

Abstract

Educational PhilosoPhy and thEory 'Declinism' and discourses of decline -the end of the war in Afghanistan and the limits of American powerThe end of the 'forever war' taliban forces of 75,000 overran the well-equipped 300,000+ strong afghan army, trained and supported by US-Nato military, in a world-shattering week that toppled the US afghan client regime and bought to a historic close that era of neoconservative US foreign policy that symbolically began with 9/11 and the Global War on terrorism. the event has been taken as further indicative evidence of the end of american Empire. the ignominious end of the afghan War after twenty long years, often referred to as the 'forever war' , was brought to an abrupt end by Joe Biden in such haste that it surprised everyone and caused a rift with Nato allies who wanted to stay a presence in afghanistan. Whatever spin can be placed on the end of US involvement, the withdrawal was messy and unplanned, air lifting US troops and well over 120,000 afghan US supporters from Kabul airport. Many more afghans who were part of the US war effort remain trapped in the country. Even with american support, the afghan army was routed in a week and the afghan government also collapsed. the embattled president ashraf Ghani fled the country reportedly with a 'helicopter full of cash' . 1 His swift departure left the best possible opening for the taliban, who are talking of forming an 'open, inclusive islamic government' and have established an interim government yet without the representation of women. President Biden first went on record as saying that nation-building was never part of the original mission yet the official justification for the americans being in afghanistan after the killing of Bin laden had evaporated. 2 Mission-creep set in with the downscaling US forces from 20,000 a couple of years ago to less than 2,000 in the final years. the thousands of defence contractors in Kabul indicated a massive privatisation (neoliberalisation) of US military effort including contracting-out of training, introduction of new ai weapon systems, military intelligence, coordination and logistical support. the coordination of the US mission had badly faltered; even US allies were not kept informed of the immediate withdrawal. Yet the scramble was poorly planned, no doubt also designed to avoid the possible embarassment of a massacre at Kabul airport. it might be argued that the Marshall Plan, formally the European recovery Program (1948-51), was by contrast 'successful': it transferred over US$13 billion for economic rebuilding of the economy aimed at establishing the free market to create a bulwark against communism in Europe.the global perception of US foreign policy indicated not only a global loss of face but also the recognition of problems with foreign policy transitions from trump to Biden and a degree of confusion in the White House. again, the truth of a poorly equipped indigenous enemy fighting for their own homeland against a technologically sophisticated world superpower has struck...

The spatial antecedents for drone governance in Afghanistan

“…In that picture of events, the Taliban takeover finally puts an end to any goal of achieving a liberal democratic state in Afghanistan (Cho, 2022), marking the re-establishment of a brutal authoritarian regime (Olney, 2021; Verma, 2021). The US withdrawal period was a “world-shattering week that toppled the US Afghan client regime and brought [an era] to a historic close” (Peters, 2021: 1). However, the objective of this paper is to show that the new government exercises power enabled to it by historical continuities that have a distinctly spatial basis.…”