Reviewer: Berkay Gülen
Journal: LSE Review of Books
Publication Date: 20 August 2019
Photo credit: Pexels
External Review
This review of America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making from Bush to Obama to Trump by Sharifullah Dorani was originally published in the LSE Review of Books. A short excerpt and summary are presented here for readers of this website.
Key Comment
“Dorani offers a valuable contribution to understanding the motivations of the last three American administrations in Afghanistan and the internal disagreements between the actors.”
Summary of the Review
The reviewer praises America in Afghanistan as a clear and insightful account of how the United States shaped its Afghanistan policy from the early 2000s through the first year of the Trump administration. The book traces six major decisions that defined US involvement, including the adoption of the Global War on Terror, the Bush administration’s counter-terrorism doctrine, President Obama’s troop surge, the planned withdrawal by 2014, the delayed exit in 2016, and the Trump administration’s South Asia Strategy.
Each chapter follows a structured framework, analysing the initiation, formulation, implementation, and evaluation of key policy choices. The reviewer notes that this method allows Dorani to illuminate the competing priorities, internal debates, and assumptions that shaped American decision-making. Examples include disagreements within President Bush’s war cabinet over the scale of US involvement, and the divide in the Obama administration regarding whether to deploy additional troops or consolidate existing gains.
The review also highlights Dorani’s attention to Afghanistan’s internal landscape. He describes how political networks—referred to as the “syndicate”—became influential partners for the United States, shaping security, governance, and long-term outcomes. Dorani also foregrounds a central question often raised by Afghans: how could the world’s most powerful military struggle to defeat a relatively small insurgent force and establish stability?
The reviewer concludes that Dorani’s study is notable for its depth and clarity. By emphasising the human element behind policy choices and the pressures faced by US decision-makers, the book offers a valuable guide to understanding one of the most complex foreign policy challenges of the twenty-first century.
Read the full review: Book Review: America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making from Bush to Obama to Trump
*Dr Sharifullah Dorani holds a PhD from Durham University on America’s Afghanistan War, a Master of Laws from University College London, and a degree in law from the University of Northampton, all in the UK. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and two acclaimed books: The Lone Leopard, a novel set in Afghanistan, and America in Afghanistan, published by Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the founder of CEPSAF and serves as the South Asia and Middle Eastern Editor at CESRAN International. All of Dr Dorani’s work is written to the highest academic standards and is widely indexed through Google Scholar.