Public Influence on US-Afghan Policy After 9/11 G. Almond’s Structural Functionalist Approach

Abstract

The war in Afghanistan had been examined and analyzed through multiple theoretical frameworks, most of which belong to the field of international relations. However, this paper provides an explanation from a functionalist theoretical prism and employ Gabriel Almond’s structural functionalist approach in the field of political science, which is focused on political system and policy elaboration process within the system. In this manner, theory attempts to bring clarification to US foreign policy decision-making process on war in Afghanistan while underlining the US public influence.
The paper aims to dissect Gabriel Almond’s theory through the political system and provide understanding how the integral components of the system interact with each other and how this interaction affects the results of foreign policy on US-Afghanistan example. According to the given research public mood had an important potential in affecting the US foreign policy decision-making process towards Afghanistan.