Comparing the strategy of Barack Obama and Trump towards Afghanistan

Afghanistan has played a key role in US foreign policy in recent decades. The US entry into Af Country-snapshot.ghanistan's political-military arena dates back to the late Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s. The events of September 11, 2001, increased Bush Jr.'s strategic focus on the country and led to the US invasion of Afghanistan, and this strategy more or less continued under the next US presidents, especially Obama and Trump. In this regard, the main question of the present study is what are the similarities and differences between the strategies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump towards Afghanistan? Findings The Obama badge made the security situation in Afghanistan one of its top priorities and won the Nobel Peace Prize with the slogan of war. Obama's policy on Afghanistan was, in fact, his administration's roadmap for dealing with Afghanistan. Continuing US problems in dealing with the Taliban was one of the important issues the Obamasought to resolve as soon as possible. Trump initially to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, but later signed a plan About 4,000 more US troops will be sent to Afghanistan. In his strategy, Trump opposed the hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The present study is of descriptive-analytical method. 
Extended abstract:
1- Introduction
Barack Obama's government, which came into office with the slogan of change in America in 2009, announced the security situation of Afghanistan as one of the serious priorities of his government and succeeded in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with the slogan of war. Barack Obama implemented two distinct strategies in two stages regarding Afghanistan: in the first stage, he believed in separating the dirty and clean war, meaning to fight terrorism; Afghanistan is a priority and Iraq should be removed from the direct control of American forces. In this regard, in 2009, Obama sent 17,000 new troops to Afghanistan, most of whom were stationed in the southern regions of Afghanistan. In Obama's second strategy, more emphasis was placed on economic aid and the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. According to this strategy, he intended to transfer the responsibility of providing Afghanistan's security to Afghan forces, and in the last stage of the implementation of this strategy; In June 2011, Obama announced his decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan
On the other hand, Donald Trump was the third president of the United States who faced the challenge of Afghanistan, and his government's strategy was announced after several months of delay, during a speech in August 2017, known as Trump's strategy. At the beginning of entering the White House, Trump promised the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but then he signed a plan to send about four thousand more American troops to Afghanistan. When Obama entered the White House, he announced the new strategy of the United States in Afghanistan regarding the increase of 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan, as well as a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, but Donald Trump, unlike Obama, in The beginning of his presidency did not have a specific plan for the war in Afghanistan. While at the beginning of his entry into the White House, Trump was critical of the presence of American troops in Afghanistan, but after a while in his new strategy, he opposed the hasty withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and attacked America's enemies, destroying ISIS, hitting Al-Qaeda emphasized preventing the Taliban from dominating Afghanistan, preventing the creation and development of terrorists' sanctuaries, and terrorists' access to weapons of mass destruction, and its strategy was the fear of the collapse of the Afghan government and becoming a nest of terrorists and reducing US military forces in Afghanistan. These developments caused each of the American leaders to adopt a specific pattern of behavior based on their perception of the surrounding and internal conditions of Afghanistan, how to be influenced by the internal conditions of America and individual beliefs. In the years of Obama's leadership, within the region (on the Off-Pak axis) and in the Trump era, a kind of principled realism was on the agenda. With Donald Trump coming to power as the US president, the Afghanistan crisis, which has been on foreign policy since 2001 Washington has cast a shadow, entered a new phase. The noteworthy point at this stage is the official acceptance of the Taliban as a political and field reality in the field of power in Afghanistan, which has put America in the orbit of peace with the Taliban and then ending the war in Afghanistan. This research It aims to compare the change of America's approach towards Afghanistan during the presidency of Obama and Trump. The main question of this research is what are the differences between the foreign policy strategies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump towards Afghanistan. And do they have similarities?
2- Theoretical framework
 The theoretical framework of this research is based on the National security strategy documents (2010 and 2015) of the Barack Obama and 2017 Donald Trump’s era.Obama believed that the mere and superficial pursuit of American interests in the past and the lack of attention to the internal situation of Afganistan has led to popular dissatisfaction in this country and This is a potential threat to US long-term goals in Afganistan. Assessing US national security policy and the pattern of US strategic action will also require recognizing the perceptual differences of presidents. Comparative US security policy requires recognition of the national security document, the four-year defense document, State Department documents, and analytical formats published in the field of US security policy. In addition to the Presidential National Security Document, which is published in turn, there are various indications of the security models and processes available to the State Department, the Department of Defense, and strategic agencies. The US Department of Defense has been publishing the US defense strategy for four years. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the comparisons of US national security policy during the time of Barack Obama and Donald Trump in Afganistan.
 
3- Methodology
 
 The research method used in this article is descriptive and data collection has been done using library tools and internet resources.
4- Discussion
The findings of the research show that the American foreign policy was formed after September 11, 2001 in the form of idealism discourse. The most important pillar of this discourse was the establishment of democracy in Afghanistan. The concept of democracy was so challenged in Afghanistan that the United States was hesitant to expand this principle of its foreign policy. Afghanistan's withdrawal from the concepts of this idealist discourse reached its peak. One of America's propaganda maneuvers for attacking Afghanistan was to promote American values such as democracy, human rights, etc. Before Trump took office, the idea of "American exceptionalism" was the driving force behind the internationalism of this country's foreign policy, but Trump's selective internationalism caused America to shirk many of its responsibilities and obligations. Trump intended to adopt The "America First" approach returned this country to the tradition of isolationism in its new dimensions. Trump's indifference to issues such as democracy, human rights, peace... was evident in the peace agreement with the Taliban. Trump made peace with the Taliban primarily to ensure the safety of American soldiers and reduce the cost of war. Abandoning the central government of Afghanistan during the negotiations also showed that democracy and the future of the Afghan people have no place for America in the Arab world. In other words, according to Trump's cost-benefit logic, since this policy did not bring any benefit to America, there was no need to pretend to implement it.

Conclusion and Suggestions

To achieve their goals, great powers use a set of power tools to control actors, resources, and processes. Since the beginning of the 21st century and after the events of September 11, 2001, the United States, as the only remaining superpower of the bipolar system, used the opportunity and by gaining the support of other actors and countries, which was unique in history, attacked and entered Afghanistan. It became a geostrategic region. America gradually became clear in its declared goals the fight against extremism and the overthrow of the Taliban, which is accompanied by global support, is facing major problems. At first, it seems that the initial military successes and the rapid overthrow of the Taliban will lead to the establishment of the desired system of the United States, but gradually the realities of the Afghan scene imposed themselves on the United States and led this country step by step to withdrawal and passivity.