In the midst of the cold war era, both the U.S and U.S.S.R engaged one another in proxy wars in regions throughout the world to further their respective expansionist national agendas while counteracting the geo-political influence of one another. Proxy wars are conflicts contained within third party nations or regions which instigated by the influence of major geopolitical powers who do not themselves become directly involved in the conflict. Thus proxy wars are facilitated by major powers to preserve and expand their geopolitical influence through promoting or opposing certain armed factions within a regional conflict which in turn align themselves with particular ideologies, socio-economic structures or forms of government. A prime example of a cold era proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union is the conflict in Afghanistan surrounding the soviet invasion and occupation of the country. During this period, the U.S supplied significant financial and material support to factions of the mujahedeen, a loose collection of militant Islamic factions which formed in Afghanistan to combat Soviet occupation, which began in earnest in late 1979 as a response to the perceived threat posed by armed resistance groups to the stability of the pro-soviet national government in Kabul..(History.state.gov) The significant role that the U.S played in supporting the Mujahedeen during their proxy war with the U.S.S.R in Afghanistan helped to effectively end soviet expansion in central Asia and directly contributed to the removal of troops from Afghanistan.
Although the Soviet Union engaged in a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas day of 1979, which itself had been preceded by decades of military cooperation between the two countries, the administration under U.S president Jimmy Carter opted not to become directly militarily involved in the conflict. Instead, the Carter administration chose to provide financial and material support to a large coalition of Islamic militant groups which had amassed in Afghanistan and unified under the title of “Mujahedeen” in their efforts of armed resistance against a pro-soviet national government in Kabul and soviet military occupation following the invasion in 1979. (Jihad with US Arms) The decision of the U.S to avoid becoming directly involved in the conflict reflects a fundamental rationale which motivates major powers to engage in proxy wars in the first place, which is to promote, preserve and expand geopolitical influence at a minimal expense of human resources, such as the deployment of ground troops. A primary reason the U.S opted against becoming directly militarily involved in the conflict, beyond the obvious risk of inciting an all-out war with the USSR, was the lack of public support for committing to direct military involvement which followed the disastrous quagmire in Vietnam. Thus the president could not reasonably call for, nor could congress hope to authorize, a direct military engagement for fear of backlash from a war weary American public. Thus the U.S found in the Mujahedeen a method to counteract soviet military conquest in the region while committing only material and financial support. (History.state.gov)
The U.S effectively helped the Mujahedeen rise to power through providing material and financial support to the rebel factions fighting against the soviet occupation of Afghanistan, which was bolstered from support provided by other major and regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. As the Mujahedeen gained prominence as an effective guerilla style military response to the soviet military occupation, Muslims from many surrounding countries traveled to participate in what many perceived as a “holy war”, most notably a young man from Saudi Arabia named Osama Bin Laden. While the U.S and Mujahedeen maintained a seemingly mutually beneficial relationship during the years of soviet occupation, relations between them quickly deteriorated following the withdraw of soviet troops from Afghanistan and subsequent collapse of the. U.S.S.R in December of 1991. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the national Afghan government lost credibility and Kabul fell to Mujahedeen forces in April of 1992. The disparate factional nature of the mujahedeen forces in Afghanistan set in motion four years of civil war which would cumulate in the rise of the Taliban to power in 1996, an extremist militant group which remains as a formidable adversary to the military and foreign policy objectives of the US in the middle east and beyond. . (Jihad with US Arms)
The legacy of cold war era proxy war between the US and U.S.S.R in Afghanistan is manifested clearly through observing the nature and objectives of the current U.S military engagement in and occupation of Afghanistan and other regions throughout the middle east following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. One of the “fundamental strategic assumptions” defining current U.S military involvement in the middle east is that the Taliban is synonymous with Al Qaeda and that the US. “must fight a counterinsurgency war with the Taliban”, yet the very existence of the Taliban is an indirect consequence of U.S intervention based foreign policy objectives.(Cortright, 2009) Furthermore, as the US campaign in Afghanistan is “primarily against the Taliban” it is important to regard facts such as those released in a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which stated that “opposition to external forces” was the primary factor contributing to mobilizing support for the Taliban.(Cortright, 2009.)
During the cold war era proxy war between the U.S and the USSR Afghanistan, the U.S provided significant material and financial support to the Mujahedeen in their armed struggle against soviet military occupation following the wholesale invasion by the USSR in 1979. Furthermore, the assistance provided to the mujahedeen by the U.S during this period directly helped to effectively end soviet expansion in central Asia and directly contributed to the removal of troops from Afghanistan. However, the Mujahedeen persisted as a major military force in post-soviet Afghanistan which effectively plunged the nation into four years of civil war cumulating in the rise of the Taliban in 1996, which remains a formidable adversary to U.S military and foreign policy.(History.state.gov) Thus it should be understood how the expansionist national agendas and intervention based foreign policy objectives of major geopolitical powers via proxy wars can destabilize the socio-political framework of entire nations and through extension create the conditions necessary for the rise of radical militant groups such as the Taliban to power.
Works Cited
Bodansky, Yossef. Bin Laden: The man who declared war on America. Prima Lifestyles, 2011.
Cortright, David. "No Easy Way Out." America 201.10 (2009): 10-13. Education Research Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
"Culture Afghanistan." International Educator (1059-4221) 18.4 (2009): 14-15. Education Research Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
"We Didn't Make These Monsters." American Enterprise 12.8 (2001): 11. Education Research Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
“Jihad with US-Arms - The Soviet–Afghan War I THE COLD WAR.” Online video. Youtube. Youtube, 11 Jul 2015. Web. 2 April 2016.
"War in Afghanistan." America 185.13 (2001): 3. Education Research Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.
"The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. Response, 1978–1980." OFFICE of the Historian. United States Department of State. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
