Five years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a new book shines light on one of the war’s most consequential local partnerships: the U.S. relationship with Abdul Raziq Achakzai, the powerful police chief who controlled security in Kandahar province.
“America’s Favorite Warlord” by Jacob Hagstrom traces how Raziq became a central figure for coalition operations in southern Afghanistan. Hagstrom, a military veteran and historian, chose Raziq as a case study after his West Point roommate Thaddeus Fox (who deployed to Spin Boldak with the Second Cavalry Regiment in 2010) first introduced him to the story.
In an interview with Military.com, Hagstrom highlighted how Raziq delivered results. His forces generated intelligence, recruited fighters, and provided access to tribal networks that helped coalition units operate in one of the most dangerous areas of the country.
As a homegrown Pashtun leader rather than an outsider aristocrat or technocrat, he carried legitimacy with wide segments of the local population. In a province where the Taliban exerted constant pressure, that translated into tangible security gains for periods when its influence was strongest.
Yet Hagstrom acknowledges that Raziq was a complicated figure. His methods drew accusations of brutality and abuse. Hagstrom told Military.com that the prevailing view in much recent literature has cast Raziq in stark terms.
His research, however, which draws on Afghan and coalition sources, presents a more layered and nuanced picture and questions the overly simplified portrayals that dominate the current historical orthodoxy.
A Homegrown Partner Who Delivered Results
Hagstrom details how Raziq’s network became indispensable for many units working in Kandahar. He could move manpower quickly, produce usable intelligence on Taliban activity, and navigate the tribal politics that often determined who controlled key terrain. For forces trying to maintain pressure in districts where the insurgency was deeply rooted, those capabilities mattered on a daily basis.
Personnel who supported operations in Kandahar in 2014 and 2015, when Raziq was at the zenith of his influence, saw the practical side of this arrangement firsthand. Raziq’s people operated with a level of local knowledge and speed that formal Afghan structures lacked. That effectiveness gave him influence far beyond his formal title as police chief.
Legitimacy and Controversy
Hagstrom told Military.com that Raziq stood out because he was a product of the area rather than someone imposed from Kabul or abroad. That homegrown status helped him build broad support among Pashtun communities in Kandahar at a time when many security force leaders struggled to connect with the population.
At the same time, serious questions followed Raziq throughout his career. Allegations of harsh tactics and other misconduct were persistent. Sources inform Military.com that some senior U.S. leaders would refuse official photographs with Raziq as a result. Hagstrom’s work acknowledges those issues while placing them in the context of a grinding, high-stakes fight for control of the province. The book does not excuse problematic behavior, but it resists reducing Raziq to a one-dimensional villain.
Raziq also clashed with then-President Ashraf Ghani. He joined a coalition of figures protesting Ghani’s policies, highlighting the political friction that often accompanied operational cooperation. These tensions underscore how local partners operated inside their own complex power struggles, not simply as extensions of U.S. objectives.
By opposing key coalition-backed power brokers in Kabul at a time when U.S. support began to evaporate, Raziq cemented a legacy that was both ignominious to his adversaries and endearing to those he represented.
General Raziq was killed in October 2018 when a Taliban infiltrator, working as a provincial bodyguard, opened fire on him and other senior officials following a security meeting at the Kandahar governor’s compound.
What Future Leaders Must Understand
Hagstrom told Military.com there is no simple rulebook for working with local leaders in foreign conflicts. He stated:
No matter where the U.S. goes, we are going to have to rely on local leaders, including ones that do not necessarily reflect U.S. values
The risks are real, but so is the operational necessity in many environments.
For service members and leaders at every level, the Raziq story offers a concrete reminder: when the United States commits forces abroad, the partners required for success rarely arrive with résumés that match American ideals.
Some deliver critical capabilities on the ground. Others bring liabilities that can complicate longer-term goals. Effective planning starts with an honest inventory of both.
That does not mean lowering standards or ignoring misconduct. It does mean entering partnerships with clear eyes about what a local leader can and cannot provide, investing in a deep understanding of local power dynamics, and building in mechanisms to manage the downsides.
Short-term operational gains can evaporate if the relationship is not handled with realism about sustainability and transition.
Hagstrom’s book does not hand out easy lessons or moral verdicts. It offers a detailed case study of one of the most important local relationships of the Afghanistan war.
Eight years after Raziq’s assassination, the enigmatic figure still looms large in the historiography of the Afghan War. And now five years after the ultimate withdrawal, that case study remains relevant for anyone thinking about how the U.S. military operates alongside partners in complex environments around the world.
“America’s Favorite Warlord: The Life and Death of General Raziq of Kandahar” is published by Pen & Sword Books and will be available in the United States in June.
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