Blowback

Blowback is a term coined by the CIA in the 1950s (first appearing in a classified report about the 1953 Iran coup) which refers to the unintended consequences of covert operations that come back to harm the country that conducted them.

Classic examples:

• U.S. arming and training mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s. Some of the jihadis and weapons later formed the core of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, leading to attacks in the continental United States.

• U.S. support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The U.S. later fought Saddam in 1991 and 2003.

• Arming anti-Gaddafi rebels in the Libyan war in 2011. Weapons and fighters spread across the Sahel, fueling jihadist groups and the European migrant crisis.

The term gained wider circulation in Chalmers Johnson's 2000 book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire.