The western debacle in Afghanistan is being dealt with in public primarily from a humanitarian point of view.

This is of course due to the fact that the news of the past few days has been dominated by the airlift to Kabul and the return of the Taliban.

The defeat suffered by the United States and its allies in the Hindu Kush also raises important strategic questions.

Does the fall of Afghanistan mark a further loss of importance for the incumbent world power and Europe in world politics?

What are the consequences of withdrawing beyond the country from a scene that for two decades served as an upstream front for the defense of Western security and values?

As always with such questions, the answers are not as clear-cut as some quick (politician) statements suggest.

America has been written off many times, not only after the Vietnam War, which is now often used as a comparison.

Still the strongest power

But one thing will not have changed when the last American soldier has left Afghanistan: The USA will still be by far the strongest military power in the world and have the largest economy. It has long been a hallmark of American wars that they take place far away from their own territory. A defeat may lead to political upheaval at home, but it does not result in any material war damage that could weaken the substance of the country.

In fact, the American withdrawal is likely to increase America's military capacity to act.

Although the actual combat mission in Afghanistan ended in 2014, the Americans were operationally tied in the country until the end.

You support the Afghan army from the air, among other things.

There is still a combat mission in Iraq, but it should expire at the end of the year.

That was exactly the goal that the American president is pursuing with the retreat, which his two predecessors would have liked to have carried out.

He wants to gain freedom for the new priority of American foreign policy: the dispute with China.

Atypical wars

For world politics as a whole, this amounts to a return to classic foreign policy, which is strongly influenced by real politics.

The wars that the West waged in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya were historically atypical conflicts because they were supposed to serve the purpose of counter-terrorism, nation-building or human rights.

The chaotic and humiliating finale in the Hindu Kush will only hasten the end of this era.

Under the impression of the Russian annexation of Crimea, NATO switched back to alliance defense years ago.

Now there is the growing military engagement of the West in the Indo-Pacific.

The dispute with China will have a strong maritime character, which is the opposite of the stabilization operations of recent years.

It is more difficult to answer the question of whether the Taliban's triumphant advance will lead to a resurgence of Islamist terrorism.

Some in America fear that the images from Kabul and the narrative of the “defeated superpower” will be taken by local sleepers as encouragement for new attacks.

In principle, this danger also looms in Europe.

However, it is not certain whether the Taliban, an essentially nationalist movement, will once again host the jihadist international after the experience of 2001.

They are openly enemies with the local branch of the “Islamic State”.

The greater threat could arise in the region, for example for (nuclear armed) Pakistan, which itself deals with radical groups.

China and Russia, who want to derive geopolitical gains from the American withdrawal, also have cause for concern because the resurgence of Islamist ideology in Afghanistan could have an impact on their Muslim minorities.

From today's perspective, at least one thing seems to be clear: America and the West as a whole will be very hesitant to react again to such developments with a major intervention.

Even in the fight against the "Islamic State" in Syria and Iraq, air strikes were primarily used.

That is why the most pressing question for Europe is not whether the EU would be able to lift an airlift like the one to Kabul without the Americans.

In the foreseeable future, it is more likely to be about the use of special forces.

The fact that Germany recently seriously considered dissolving the KSK is one of the many misconceptions about the consequences of the withdrawal from the Hindu Kush.

Another was that America would selflessly look after our security again after Trump.

At the moment, Biden is primarily looking for allies to contain China.