Hal Brands, Columnist

There’s a Right Way for a Superpower to Cut and Run

Pulling out of Afghanistan won’t be a disaster (except for the Afghans). Abandoning Taiwan would be a monumental error.

May 10, 2021 at 2:00 PM UTC

Hal Brands is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and the Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Up against the wall.
Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

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When can a military retreat improve a distressed superpower’s strategic position? And when does it simply bring more danger?

These aren’t hypothetical questions for U.S. leadership today. America is leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of war. Foreign policy wonks and academics are debating whether Washington should drop its commitment to Taiwan as the Chinese threat grows.