US FOREIGN POLICY IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

Abstract

Afghanistan is of outstanding geostrategic importance for Asia and the world. It is the
heart of Asia. For decades, the United States have decisively influenced the political
developments in Afghanistan. Between 1979 and 1989, Pakistan was the strategic partner
of the United States in the covert war against the Soviet occupation forces in Afghanistan.
In the period of the Afghan Civil War between 1992 and 1996 and during the rise of the
Taliban, the United States lost contact with the majority of their former Afghan allies. The
relationship with Pakistan had also cooled off during this period. This changed with the
attacks of 9/11, which made Pakistan a strategic ally of the United States again. The US
troops have been caught in a "trap" prepared by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan since 1998. The
network's plan was to engage the United States in a long war of attrition in Afghanistan
so that it would suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union before.