US POLICY TOWARD AFGHANISTAN: OBAMA AND TRUMP PERIOD

Abstract

Before 1979, Afghanistan had never been on the agenda of the United States. However, at that time, Afghanistan was brought to the US agenda because of the invasion by the Soviet Union. Thus, one of the representative battles of the two superpowers of the period took part in Afghanistan. Another feature of this history is that, the US lost its most important ally after Israel in the Middle East due to the İslamic revolution. As a result of the struggle of the US-backed groups in Afghanistan, in 1989 the Soviet Union was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan. Since then, a civil war has started in Afghanistan and the country has been transformed into hell. The September 11 attacks led to the US invasion of Afghanistan. The US presidents who occupied the country followed different policies. For example, While Bush was trying to rebuild Afghanistan, Obama tried to strengthen the current order. Trump, on the other hand, has adopted a “situation-oriented approach”. In this study, the policy of the US toward Afghanistan is examined by dividing into two Obama and Trump periods.