Thegraveyard of empires is asobriquet often associated withAfghanistan. It originates from several historical examples of foreign powers who were unable to achieve military victory in Afghanistan in the modern period, including theBritish Empire, theSoviet Union and, most recently, theUnited States.[2][3]
Historically,great powers have invaded Afghanistan without having been able to maintain stable long-term rule. Modern examples include theBritish Empire during theFirst,Second, andThird Anglo-Afghan Wars (1839–1842, 1878–1880, 1919); theSoviet Union in theSoviet–Afghan War (1979–1989); and theUnited States in theWar in Afghanistan (2001–2021).[2][3][4] The difficulty of conquering Afghanistan has been attributed to the problems that invaders face when confronting its hazardousmountainous terrain,desert conditions, severe winters,guerilla warfare,qalats (fortresses),[5] enduring clan loyalties,[6] empires often being in conflict with each other while simultaneously attempting to subdue Afghanistan, and complications caused by interactions with Afghanistan's neighboring countries—such as coordinating relations with Pakistan, where fighters in Afghanistan have sometimes located their sanctuaries.[7]
The phrase, in reference to Afghanistan, does not seem to predate a 2001 article byMilton Bearden in the magazineForeign Affairs.[8][9] Alternatively, the term has been applied toMesopotamia.[10] Elsewhere, a very similar phrase, "the graveyard of nations and empires", has been used in a figurative sense to describe theOld Testament'sBook of Isaiah.[11]
The anthropologist Thomas Barfield has noted that the narrative of Afghanistan as an unconquerable nation has been used by Afghanistan itself to deter invaders.[12] In October 2001, during theUnited States invasion of Afghanistan, theTaliban founder and leaderMohammed Omar Mujahid threatened the United States with the same fate as the British Empire and the Soviet Union.[13]
U.S. PresidentJoe Biden referred to the sobriquet while he delivered a public statement after the 2021fall of Kabul as evidence that no further commitment of American military presence would consolidate theIslamic Republic of Afghanistan against the Taliban.[14]
The New York Times foreign correspondent Rod Nordland has stated that "in truth, no great empires perished solely because of Afghanistan."[15]Joint Services Command and Staff College lecturer Patrick Porter called the attribution "a false extrapolation from something that is true – that there is tactical and strategic difficulty."[6]
The British Empire was not destroyed after the Third Anglo-Afghan War,[16] and the collapse of the British Empire is more commonly attributed toWorld War II.[6]
While the Soviet–Afghan War was a major factor in thedissolution of the Soviet Union, the opposition in Afghanistan was assisted with foreign aid, primarily from theUnited States.[17][7] Furthermore, there is reason to believe that the Soviet Union would have collapsed regardless of the campaign.[16] Nonetheless, the narrative allowed forargument from analogy and the thesis of "history repeating itself", which proved accepted amongst historians, authors and political experts.[16][17]
