The UC Santa Barbara Undergraduate Journal of History

The September 11th attacks ignited a new era of American foreign policy–the Global War on Terror. As the United States sought out punishment for those responsible, Americans created a new narrative in which the U.S. played a more centralized role within the deterrence of globalized terrorism. Academic literature published after 9/11 has maintained that the United States became aware of threats from Afghanistan as a result of the 1998 Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy bombings; however, this study argues that the United States government was aware of terrorism from the nation of Afghanistan earlier than 1998 and ignored it in a larger effort to absolve the U.S. from participation in international affairs. While this study does not explain modern events between Afghanistan and the United States, it serves to analyze the pre-existing history between the two nations up to and including 2011 and contribute to existing scholarship about U.S.-Afghan relations.