Abstract. A plethora of opinions expressed in the U.S. political and expert circles on the intervention in Afghanistan did not produce an answer to the question about the future of the American operation. Amidst this uncertainty, the book by Barnett Rubin and his colleagues revisits some fundamental issues regarding the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The authors’ main idea is that the isolation of Afghanistan impedes its development because the country only partially participates in international division of labor, while lack of development fuels multiple internal contradictions. As a result, the Afghan government lacks the income to provide basic public goods or sustain order. It was argued that the solution is to reintegrate Afghanistan into world economy through development of export industries and to reinforce the central government. In practice, all attempts to strengthen the Afghan government only led to its growing reliance on the United States. However, after the fall of the pro-American regime, the Taliban started to implement the program of reinforcing the central government in Afghanistan, albeit from different ideological positions. The historical paradox will be if the Taliban succeed in this effort where the pro-American regime failed.