The role of the United States in shaping the structure of government in Afghanistan

this study examines the role of the United States in shaping the Afghan government structure from 2001 to 2021. The US intervention, which began with the aim of suppressing terrorism and overthrowing the Taliban regime, gradually evolved into a major project to rebuild the country’s political, security, and economic system. Despite major investments and efforts to implement a modern democratic and institutional model, Afghanistan’s political system remained heavily dependent on foreign support and failed to gain popular legitimacy and sustainable institutional cohesion. US collaboration with informal elites and traditional structures led to the formation of dual power and weakened the sovereignty of the central government. The Americans were eventually forced to withdraw from Afghanistan and sign the Doha Agreement with the Taliban, which they also considered a terrorist group, and the Taliban’s full return in 2021 has demonstrated the failure of this approach to building sustainable government. The results of the study show that any structural transformation in Afghanistan requires an understanding of the indigenous population, genuine popular participation and interaction between traditional and modern structures; not simply external interventions with geopolitical goals. This study attempts to provide a systematic picture of these experiences and their consequences.

US role, state formation, political structure, institutionalization and state building, regime collapse