Comparing Afghanistan and Iraq
Matthew Yglesias has a list of possible explanations for why, in the wake of Afghanistan’s presidential election, “fewer resources have brought better results in Afghanistan than have a much larger quantity of troops and cash in Iraq.” He’s got a pretty decent list of hypotheses — greater multilateral involvement, better indigineous political leadership, etc. I’d ...
Matthew Yglesias has a list of possible explanations for why, in the wake of Afghanistan's presidential election, "fewer resources have brought better results in Afghanistan than have a much larger quantity of troops and cash in Iraq." He's got a pretty decent list of hypotheses -- greater multilateral involvement, better indigineous political leadership, etc. I'd add two big ones, however:
Matthew Yglesias has a list of possible explanations for why, in the wake of Afghanistan’s presidential election, “fewer resources have brought better results in Afghanistan than have a much larger quantity of troops and cash in Iraq.” He’s got a pretty decent list of hypotheses — greater multilateral involvement, better indigineous political leadership, etc. I’d add two big ones, however:
1) Afghanistan doesn’t have any oil. Economies based on extractive resources generate massive opportunities for graft and corruption. They also encourage domestic actors to battle over the distribution of existing resources, rather than focusing on growing the pie for everyone. A related point: because of that oil wealth, many Iraqis could claim to some middle-class aspirations even during the sanctions era. the threat to those aspirations posed by continuing instability badly undercuts support for the U.S. invasion. 2) Afghanistan was invaded eighteen months before Iraq. There simply hasn’t been the same rush to elections in Afghanistan that there has been in Iraq. Even though both countries are dealing with insurgencies, the Taliban’s failure to dusrupt the presidential elections suggests that they cannot muster coordinated attacks. This may be due to 18 more months of counterinsurgency operations.
Post your own explanations below.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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