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Sept. 25, 2024

Book Review: Unwinnable Wars: Afghanistan and the Future of American Armed Statebuilding

Cover of Unwinnable Wars: Afghanistan and the Future of American Armed StatebuildingStrategy |

Author: Adam Wunische
 
Reviewed by Dr. Erik Goepner, US government analyst, colonel (US Air Force, retired)
 
Dr. Erik Goepner reviews analyst Adam Wunische’s Unwinnable Wars, which, according to Gopener, offers a “timeless reminder—American power has limits.” Goepner provides a helpful outline of Wunische’s four “major preexisting conditions that severely limit the success of armed state-building efforts.” Wunische argues that preexisting conditions are “beyond the control of the intervening power” and “often foreordain the failure of such missions” (such as Afghanistan, the book’s main case study).
 

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Keywords: military intervention, armed state building, policy making, international relations, Afghanistan