Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Yasouj University, Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad, Iran
Abstract
After the US attack on Afghanistan, one of the main plans of NATO forces was to train, equip and build a robust army to counter terrorist attacks and re-emergence the Taliban in the country. The 11-day fall of Kabul to the Taliban invasion raised number questions about the efficiency of the army in the country including what was the reason for the rapid collapse of the Afghanistan army? To answer the question, semi-structured in-depth interviews with military-political experts and university professors were used. The participants were selected using the snowball sampling technique and after identifying the effective factors, the interviewees were asked to sort the indicators by importance degree. Finally, twelve factors were adjusted in order of importance. In the second stage, the identified factors were classified into four groups: main factors, auxiliary factors, accelerating factors, and contextual factors. The interviews of Afghan military commanders, political and local officials with media were also used to better explain the identified factors and increase their validity and reliability. The findings show that the lack of self-confidence in the military and reliance on the United States, corruption within the Afghanistan army and offices, and the lack of loyalty to the Ashraf Ghani’s Administration have played a main role in its collapse.
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