RUSSIA’S AND IRAN’S STRATEGIC POLICIES TOWARDS THE AFGHANISTAN CRISIS

Abstract

The war in Afghanistan began with the Soviet intervention and geopolitical developments of this crisis somehow attracted all the claiming actors of the international system. In this article, the authors have analysed the role of Russia and Iran by acknowledging the role of local causes and the other actors such as the United States, China, India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia in complicating the Afghanistan crisis. The difference between the role of Russia and Iran and that of other countries is that the two countries are trying to drive the US out of Afghanistan. That is, although they also have secondary goals, their priority is to make Afghanistan unsafe for the United States. The authors are thus trying to answer this question: “in a long process what steps have been taken by Russia and Iran to neutralize the US in Afghanistan so far?”