Explaining The Policy Change In The Afghanistan War Through The Lens Of Biographical Narrative

In September 2021,after the complete withdrawal of American troops,the Taliban announced the establishment of an interim government,officially ending of the Afghanistan War.During the Obama era,"nation-building" in Afghanistan became the core of the US policy,aiming to protect the stability of the Afghan government and prevent terrorist threats to the US.During the Trump era,the US policy in Afghanistan shifted to "peace through strength",using increased military pressure to achieve a political solution to the war.When the reasons for war and the war situation did not play out in favor of the US,the war policy underwent a change that directly led to the end of the war process.How was this major policy change rationalized at the national narrative level?Ontology security theory holds that a country needs to maintain its ontological security,but also suggests that narratives have their plasticity and play a fundamental role in maintaining ontological security.Therefore,this article uses "biographical narratives" as an analytical tool to explore how the policy changes in the US Afghan War during the Obama and Trump eras were justified without posing a threat to US ontological security.The article assumes that a president can emphasize different elements of the national life narrative to rationalize different policies,while maintaining national ontological security when introducing policy changes.This article focuses on how the US understands itself and its international environment,and how this affects its Afghan policy.First,the author summarizes the American exceptionalism as a description of the nature of American exceptionalism based on the American moral mission through textual analysis,as part of the American life narrative.Then,the article conducts a text analysis of the public statements of the two presidents,Obama and Trump,to explain their discursive consciousness.The article argues that Obama highly linked American morality and American exceptionalism,believing that American national behavior must conform to American values and attempting to avoid the US being trapped in an indefinite war,ultimately choosing to transform the Afghan War through non-military means.On the other hand,Trump believed that American exceptionalism was not achieved through morality but through the essentialist practice of American exceptionalism,namely the "America First" foreign policy.This policy believes that "America’s decline is due to the past abandonment of the difference between America and the world," that is,the previous US government emphasized the promotion of American values and the multilateral mechanisms that reflect these values,which made America foolish and deceived.Therefore,the solution is to "rebuild the distinction between America and the world",that is,to use America First as a standard and minimize America’s obligations to foreign affairs.