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What would Byzantium do?

If the west really wants to fix Afghanistan, it should learn from an ancient, brutal empire

by Edward Luttwak / January 27, 2010 / Leave a comment
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The Byzantine art of war and diplomacy would prove useful in today’s Afghanistan

Even by the shortest reckoning, the Byzantine empire survived for eight centuries (from the fourth to the twelfth)—longer than any other in history. Although the Byzantines were supremely tenacious in combat, their strategy—invented in response to the unprecedented threat of Attila’s Huns in the 5th century—relied on diplomacy, evolving into a body of rules and techniques that is still relevant today.

Unlike the Romans, the Byzantines wrote official guidebooks on statecraft, foreign relations and espionage: writings I find especially fascinating, as I once helped compose the main field manual of the US army. These ancient techniques centred on a single, paradoxical principle: do everything possible to raise, equip and train the best possible army and navy; then do everything possible to use them as little as possible.

With Afghanistan, the west faces a simple strategic calculus: too costly to stay in, too risky to leave. A Byzantine response would be, first to withdraw the west’s scarce, expensive troops, and arm local proxies instead. This was the standard remedy for turbulent, worthless lands where no taxes could be collected, but which were to be denied to enemies: an improvement over the Romans’ fondness for battles of attrition and annihilation.

In Afghanistan, a banal case of divide and rule is impossible. There is no unitary nation to divide. This is well suited to a Byzantine strategy, which would aim not to rule Afghanistan, but to stop the Taliban from doing so. Little persuasion would be needed to co-opt allies. The Shia Hazara distrust the Taliban, who view them as heretics deserving death, while the country’s Tajiks and Uzbeks, who can be as extreme in religion as the Taliban, would not want to be ruled by them either.

The Byzantines would use diplomacy to deal with Afghanistan’s diverse neighbours. They once even persuaded a rival empire to split the cost of guarding strategic border passes, so both could keep invaders out. Today Uzbekistan, which is just across the river from Afghanistan, and its patron Russia, which is just beyond, have every reason to keep the Taliban at bay, given their internal struggles against armed Islamists. Accordingly, the Byzantines would demand from Russia and Uzbekistan the weapons and ammunition that were needed to arm the Tajiks, Hazara and Uzbeks in Afghanistan.

Most Pakistanis, too, have had their fill of Islamists—during the…

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Comments

  1. R Bielby
    January 28, 2010 at 13:53
    Didn't the US already try this tactic a few decades ago in Afghanistan? Arming the 'local proxies' to deny their then enemies (the Soviets)? And aren't those local proxies now the same people they're fighting now?
  2. E.Muscat
    January 28, 2010 at 17:35
    I used to listen to your advice on italian TV when you were a guest and I always admired your astuteness.I agree totally with your reasoning and add that the byzantines had greek fire which was the equivalent of the atom bomb:the west should not be afraid to use it in a sensible way.There is also the food weapon since most of the food is grown in fertile non-oil western countries which can be also used in a selective way on hostile countries with exploding populations.People may think these are callous ways of controlling other people but we live in exceptional times and need to protect our children's future.
  3. Paul Doolan
    January 31, 2010 at 20:48
    History is full of lessons for policy makers today. The only problem is that we titally lack any mechanism by which we can differentiate between the right lessons and the wrong lessons. I assume the Byzantines must have been pleased to see their rivals, the Seljuk Turks, being defeated by a minor tribe. In hindsight it was the minor tribe, known as the Ottomans, who turned out to be the real problem.
  4. Patricia Hoad
    February 5, 2010 at 02:51
    Mr. Luttwak, I like your work; but: I realise that we old people have outlived our usefulness. Can't you send us out, though, with an arm round the shoulder instead of a kick in the butt? Pat Hoad
  5. DGJ
    February 8, 2010 at 04:31
    Good advice Ronald Reagan applied it in El Salvador and won. Our leaders won't listen to it until we pull the rug out from under their imperialist delusions. The Byzantines didn't become Byzantine until they found themselves too weak to counter Islamic foes.
  6. Alton
    February 21, 2010 at 16:43
    Impressive. Wonderfully thought and written.

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About this author

Edward Luttwak
Edward Luttwak's The Middle of Nowhere: Why the West Should Get Out of the Middle East (Atlantic) is forthcoming
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