The International Responsibility of the United States Following Its Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan (2021) in Light of the Responsibility to Rebuild

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Ph.D. Candidate in Public International Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A military attack on the territory of a state, even when justified on the grounds of preventing serious human rights violations, may generate not only legal consequences arising from the use of force and the law of armed conflict, but also subsequent obligations for the intervening state, including the responsibility to rebuild. The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of presence raises the question of whether the United States’ obligations are confined solely to the rules of war, or whether, within the framework of the “responsibility to rebuild,” one may speak of an independent and attributable obligation in the post-conflict period. Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach and employing documentary research, this article examines, within the theoretical framework of the responsibility to rebuild as an extension of jus post bellum and the responsibility to protect, Security Council documents, U.S. official practice and statements, reports on the reconstruction of Afghanistan, and relevant doctrines of peacebuilding. The findings indicate that the United States, through its direct involvement in Afghanistan’s security, institutional, and economic processes, as well as through reliance on Security Council resolutions and its declared reconstruction commitments, provided the basis for attributing responsibility to rebuild. At the same time, the hasty withdrawal of 2021, the collapse of security and political structures, the return of the Taliban, and Afghanistan’s continuing economic and institutional dependency demonstrate that the measures taken in the three areas of security, the rule of law, and economic development were neither sustainable nor consistent with the standards of the responsibility to rebuild. Accordingly, the responsibility of the United States is to be assessed not in terms of guaranteeing a desired outcome, but rather in light of its failure to adopt reasonable, sustainable, and non-injurious measures in the reconstruction process.

Keywords

References

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American Strategic Studies
Volume 6, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
Serial number 21 - Spring 2026
July 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 17 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 03 July 2026
  • Accept Date: 13 July 2026
  • Publish Date: 22 June 2026

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