Review: The Long War. The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan since 9/11, by David Loyn

21 May, 2023

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This book is a narrative of how the military intervention of 2001–2021 in Afghanistan went wrong. Much has been written on the topic, but few books have managed to bring together all the complex elements contributing to the failed mission of state-building and fighting terrorism in one comprehensive volume. In this book, David Loyn, former BBC correspondent in Afghanistan, illustrates how the challenges facing the military leaders and the political leadership in Kabul and Washington were (mis)handled, leading to an extremely fragile state that crumbled and ultimately fell as soon as the last American soldiers left the country.

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Weeda Mehran

Dr Weeda Mehran is a lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Department of Politics and the Director of MA in Conflict, Security and Development at the University of Exeter.
Articles by Weeda Mehran

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Volume 96, Issue 2

This issue features a collection titled 'Governing from the Centre Left' edited by Deborah Mabbett and Peter Sloman. In this collection, authors including Claire Ainsley, Jörg Michael Dostal and Eunice Goes examine how centre-left governments in North America, Australasia, and Western Europe have dealt with recent global pressures, and consider what lessons the UK Labour government should learn from its overseas counterparts. Other articles include a commentary by Ben Jackson titled 'Poverty and the Labour Party'; John Connolly, Matthew Flinders and David Judge on 'How Not to Deliver Policies: Lessons in Undeliverability from the Conservative Governments of 2019–2024'; Stewart Lansley on 'Wealth Accumulation: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'; and Coree Brown Swan, Paul Anderson, and Judith Sijstermans on 'Politics and the Pandemic: The UK Covid-19 Inquiry and Devolution'. A selection of book reviews feature Victoria Brittain's review of 'Palestinian Refugee Women from Syria to Jordan, Decolonizing the Geopolitics of Displacement' by Afaf Jabiri, and Anna Coote's review of 'The Care Dilemma: Caring Enough in the Age of Sex Equality', by David Goodhart.

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