The end to the forever war : A content analysis of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan

Abstract: To analyse the war in Afghanistan from different theories is nothing new to the studies of international relations. However, one aspect that yet has been studied regarding the Afghan war is the withdrawal of troops and civilian personnel and why it occurred in August 2021 and not earlier or later. This lack of knowledge creates a research gap which needs to be filled to explain why President Biden went through with the withdrawal, even though the president knew that the Taliban would seize power in Afghanistan. This thesis will therefore explain the Biden administration's decision to continue the military and civilian withdrawal from Afghanistan even though the threat of Taliban takeover was imminent. The method chosen for this thesis is a qualitative content analysis which will be used to analyse the material with the help of leadership trait analysis and the bureaucratic politics model theories. The material which was used war press statements, speeches, and committee hearings. As the analysis shows, the decision to withdraw was a compromise between actors which was possible due to Joe Bidens openness to information. In summary, this thesis offers one explanation to why the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.