Abstract
The war-torn Afghanistan has long suffered from the dynastical contests and fraught economic
strategies of foreigners, which instigated constant internal strife and regional instability. The
foreign interventions have made this land a sphere of influence and initiated the great game
politics sporadically. This paper attempts to examine the historical geostrategic tussles in
Afghanistan between international players on the one hand and regional actors on the other hand
over control and manipulation of Afghanistan and its surrounding regions through the lens of
conceptual framework of unintended consequences approach, which deals with irrational aspect
of foreign policy of the states. This study makes interesting contribution to the existing literature
of the [old] Great Game of the late 19th century between Czarist Russia and Great Britain or New
Great Game by re-conceptualizing this idea into a new concept of the Grand Great Game or the
3G in place of explaining the unintended consequences of the historical events i.e. the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan of 1979, the post-Cold War era when the regional players Pakistan and
India got involved in Afghanistan; and the US invasion of Afghanistan of 9/11 incident. The
findings of the paper suggest that the unintended consequences of these historical events are
bitter than the reality. The foreign interventions have paralyzed the Afghan society and made it
more insecure by promoting clandestine terrorist activities and proxies. The interview technique
helps to verify the 3G concept and present its unintended consequences. The critical content
analysis of the primary and secondary data is of assistance to understand that the current 3G to be
not only multidimensional competition, embodying multiple stakeholders but also incorporating
complex self-defined rational as well as irrational foreign policy objectives and national interests
Asifa Jahangir, Umbreen Javaid. (2018) Afghanistan Imbroglio: The Unintended Consequences of Foreign Interventions, South Asian Studies, Volume 33, Issue 2.
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