Publisher's Synopsis
In August 2021, the US-led coalition withdrew from Afghanistan. The Taliban quickly returned to power leaving many wondering what 20-years' worth of state-building efforts, and considerable loss of life and treasure, had been for. The EU had been a key actor in state-building activities, and, in 2022, the author was asked by the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee to undertake the first external evaluation of the EU's efforts in Afghanistan. This book will publish the conclusions of this research, providing a critical analysis of the EU's policies towards Afghanistan and offering evidence-based recommendations to address these failures, providing valuable lessons for future EU state-building efforts worldwide. It will show that the EU's state-building exercises were inadequate and deeply flawed; failing to account for the growing insecurity within Afghanistan and changes within the US strategy. While the EU did have successes, such as the establishment of a peace deal that held for some time, corruption and working at cross-purposes with the USA's shorter-term commitments hindered these successes.
