The Clinton administration and the Taliban: when geopolitical and economic interests clash with reality

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is outlining the relations between the United States and Afghanistan during the years of the presidency of William J. Clinton (1993-2001). In particular, the main focus is placed on the US relations with the Taliban movement, which took power in Afghanistan in the mid-90s. Furthermore, it should be noticed that a significant change in the attitude of the Clinton administration towards the situation in Afghanistan occurred between its first and second term in office. However, this change was essentially due to a transformation in the domestic political scenario rather than a conscious and thorough reevaluation of the US foreign policy and its role in the Middle East and on the world stage. Generally speaking, the Clinton administration demonstrated the lack of a comprehensive foreign policy framework, considering instead every single issue case by case. For a more comprehensive understanding of the cultural, political, economic and social setting in which the relations between the US and the Taliban regime took place, it is necessary to review some major historical events. Indeed, without an exhaustive analysis of the evolution of the situation in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979, it would result incomplete to outline a whole and deep description of the phenomenon of the rise of the Taliban.The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late December 1979 marked an important watershed for the destiny of both the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. The subsequent decade of conflict was characterised by the involvement of a number of different countries, each with different and sometimes contrasting interests and needs. The governments of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, India, and even Israel had a role in fomenting the Afghan jihadists against the infidel invaders. The power game played in the setting of this Middle-Eastern country fell in the classic framework of a Cold War conflict. It is extremely important to analyse the whole set of interests at stake in Afghanistan during the 80s and the 90s. Indeed, besides the geopolitical concerns typical of a Cold War mind-set, it should be as well taken into account what the journalist and expert Ahmed Rashid called ‘the New Great Game’, namely the challenge between oil companies to exploit the huge sources of gas and oil in Central Asia. The oil companies strategies, in fact, worked as a spearhead also for governments which, after the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, were willing to find new outlets in a part of the world so particularly rich in mineral resources. Ultimately, this thesis attempts to outline how the US strategic geopolitical and economic interests at stake in Afghanistan contributed to the overshadowing and negligence of the social changes and turmoil that paved the way to the rise of the Taliban movement.