Afghanistan: the Tale of a Failure Foretold

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) is one of the main independent European Think Tanks on geopolitical and strategic issues.

IRIS, a public-interest association created in 1991, is a French think tank on geopolitical and strategic issues. It is the only international think tank to have been set up as a totally private initiative in an independent approach. IRIS activities can be divided into four fields: research, organisation of events and meetings, publishing and training.

IRIS Notes, written by IRIS experts or IRIS associate fellow researchers offer an in-depth analysis of current affairs.This article seeks to demonstrate the reasons for the failure of the international coalition in the war in Afghanistan: the ISAF’s strategy lacked clarity and consistency, there was a failure to coordinate the international community’s efforts, and errors in analyzing the Afghan situation resulted in poor decision‐making. It is not too late to learn from the experience.