Abstract

The United States has lost several wars in the Third World since the end of World War II. There have been many explanations for this from different scholarly, policy-making and strategic perspectives. Each has provided us with enriching analysis, but none has detailed the common factors underpinning America’s losses.

This lecture focuses on the main themes that run through America’s adventurous fiascos. It analyses the fundamental variables that have commonly undermined a global power to lose what can be termed as small or medium wars compared to World Wars, as exemplified by America’s Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan debacles.

About the Speaker

Amin Saikal, AM, FASSA is Distinguished Visiting Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, and Non-Resident Fellow of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University. His latest books include Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic (Princeton University Press, 2021); The Spectre of Afghanistan: The Security of Central Asia (I.B. Tauris, 2021) – co-author; Islam Beyond Borders: The Umma in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2019) – co-author; Iran and the Arab World: A Turbulent Region in Transition (Palgrave, 2016) – editor; and Weak States, Strong Societies: Power and Authority in the New World Order (I.B. Tauris, 2016).