TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NARRATIVE FOR RECONCILIATION WITH TALIBAN

Abstract

The US caught itself in an imbroglio when it finally decided to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The law and order and prevalent security situation in Afghanistan was not favoring the US decision to exit Afghanistan. Moreover, the notion to strike a deal with Taliban who harbored the terrorists of 9/11 attack still made the world livid after two decades. Therefore, a meticulously crafted narrative that provided justification for the reconciliation and enable withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was the need of the hour. The major progress in reconciliation process was carried out during Trump administration as the US Department of State constructed narrative that endeavored to justify the peace deal with Taliban and subsequent withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The aim of this article is to explore official US narrative that facilitated the Afghan reconciliation peace process before the complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The article will attempt to explore how US crafted this narrative for reconciliation with Taliban through statements of US State Department officials and the themes which were employed in the narrative. This study attempts thematic exploration of the narrative constructed by US Department of State that facilitated to propagate a sense of
requirement for the reconciliation with Taliban. A combination of thematic and discourse analysis will be employed on the statements of US State Department officials that are selected as purposive sampling. This article will find out that an official narrative was constructed by US State Department officials to facilitate reconciliation process with Taliban by portraying a scenario calling for end to 40 years of Afghan war, emphasizing necessity for peace, rebuilding Taliban’s image as reconcilable and finally highlighting exorbitant cost of Afghan war. The paper comprises of four main sections including Introduction, Theoretical Framework, Analysis and Conclusion.