After 20 years of military engagement and billions of dollars spent, the United States announced that it will withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Syracuse University’s Mark Jacobson is the assistant dean of Washington programs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He served in 2006 in Afghanistan as a naval intelligence officer and from 2009-11 as the deputy political advisor and then deputy NATO senior civilian representative. Additionally, he served at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Jacobson recently co-authored a commentary on this issue with Annie Pforzheimer. Pforzheimer is a non-resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and retired senior Foreign Service officer who served in Afghanistan in 2009-10, again from 2017-18 as deputy chief of mission, and as acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan until March 2019.
Their piece for Defense One is titled “It Was Never All or Nothing in Afghanistan.”
The authors note:
“We served in Afghanistan starting over a decade ago, with the U.S. military, the NATO Senior Civilian Representative’s office and the U.S. embassy in Kabul. We believe a stable Afghanistan is in the national security interests of the United States even if that commitment takes decades, but that this commitment is not one that requires, as in the past, an enormous military presence.
The ‘enduring commitment’ NATO made during the transition from an international to an Afghan-led security mission was not designed only to underwrite the security of the Afghan nation through military assistance, but to support the development of institutions necessary to govern a nation fractured by decades of war. The strategies of that period, however, did not work as hoped. Initially, an insufficient number of Afghan security forces could operate independently. Judicial and local governance systems proved ineffective. Corruption ran rampant. And the economic system required a corrosive injection of tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid.”
Members of the media who would like to interview Jacobson on this issue may contact:
Joshua M. Grossman ’03
Director of Media Relations, Division of Communications and Marketing
T 202.227.9250 | jmgrossm@syr.edu
Last week, a draft decision for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked from the Supreme Court and shows that five justices are preparing a judgment that would strike down Roe v. Wade. For reporters covering this ongoing story,…
For the first time in 45 years, the U.S. Education Department is planning to update federal mandates for how schools and colleges must accommodate students with disabilities. The department is soliciting public comments about how current regulations can be improved…
As we heard earlier today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had no choice but to invade Ukraine in his Victory Day speech (CNN). Syracuse University’s Mark Jacobson has responded to this speech (see below). Jacobson is the assistant dean of Washington programs…
This week, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ordered an investigation on how a draft decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked to Politico. This leak shows that five justices are preparing a judgment that would strike down…
Reporters looking for insight into the leaked opinion showing Supreme Court justices are working on an advanced decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, please see comments from Syracuse University experts. They each offer insight on what this means in the…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
