Reflecting on America’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan: The View From Southeast Asia

Abstract

This essay reflects on the broad contours of the war in Afghanistan from Southeast Asia’s perspective. While the United States’ withdrawal from Kabul was calamitous, the pessimism about America’s role in Southeast Asia has been overstated. The United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan was largely inconsequential for the region. Southeast Asian states deftly mixed their support for America’s campaign in Afghanistan and the broader war on terror without being seen as too sympathetic, including, in some instances, condemnation of America’s attacks on Islam. Regional governments balanced their domestic political interests with their foreign policy objectives. The abrupt Afghan withdrawal may instead have positive outcomes, as the United States boosted its courtship with countries of Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region through new security arrangements such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and the Australian, U.K., and U.S. trilateral pact (AUKUS).

Perspectives on the Afghanistan War: Commentaries on a Misadventure

“…Terence Lee (2023) shifts the focus to a larger international stage in "Reflecting on America's Withdrawal from Afghanistan: The View from Southeast Asia." He concludes that the calamitous U.S. withdrawal was largely inconsequential from the Southeast Asia perspective and may actually have positive outcomes for freeing up energy to work on new security arrangements in the Indo-Pacific region.…”