How can realist ethics demonstrate the pitfalls with the Afghan intervention to benefit future statebuilding operations?

This book presents a unique discourse analysis of American foreign policy in Afghanistan from 2001–2021 that is complemented with a theoretical framework resting on realist ethics. By undertaking a critical approach to American foreign policy and strategies to fight terrorism, this book investigates how American foreign policy in Afghanistan marks an important incursion in contemporary American history. The methodology of this book comprises speeches and texts of American Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joseph R. Biden on foreign policy in Afghanistan. The theoretical framework of the book rests on realist ethics, namely that of Morgenthau's concepts of prudence, skepticism, and reciprocity to criticize the neoconservative muddle of misapplied realist interests (as the means) with liberalist goals (as the ends).