Nina Cook, Utah Valley University
History
As events of the 1978 April Revolution in Afghanistan played out during the Cold War, U.S. policy makers became concerned about the Soviet sphere of influence and began to fund the Mujahedeen-rebel groups that formed in Pakistan. The Mujahedeen, inspired by jihad, remained divided across ethnic lines, began a religiously inspired struggle against Communist usurpers and oppressors. The United States saw the Mujahedeen as a useful Cold War tool in order to contain Soviet expansion and therefore throughout the 1980’s the United States continued to head the effort to supply the rebels with money and weapons. This aid was crucial in the Soviet decision to withdraw from Afghanistan and contributed to the eventual breakup of the Soviet Union. Yet, many of the Arab Mujahedeen saw this outside the Cold War context, as a victory for concepts of militant Jihad. Thus, the Soviet-Afghan war became a catalyst for the ideas of Radical Jihad, which would lead to a global holy war against the U.S and the West by the al Qaeda network, created during the Soviet-Afghan war, beginning in the 1990s. The significance of the Soviet-Afghan War, then, lies in some unintended consequences for the U.S.: Cold War containment of the Soviets in Afghanistan fueled Jihad, which in turn targeted American interests in an entirely new war.