The Afghanistan Wars

The current situation in Afghanistan is all too familiar, but its past remains unfamiliar to many. William Maley offers a valuable insight into Afghanistan's wars and the domestic, regional, and international politics that have exposed the population of what was once one of the most stable states in Asia to enormous damage. Maley examines the Soviet-Afghan War, the Afghan Civil War and the current conflict in the context of Afghanistan's cultural, social, political and geographical complexities. These are complexities with which policy makers, journalists, students and scholars must now come to terms. The Afghanistan Wars Provides A Meticulously Documented Account Of These Waves Of Conflict. It Explores, In Detail The Roots Of Afghanistan's Slide Into Disorder In The Late 1970s, How The Soviet Union Came To The Rescue Of Unworthy Clients And Was Then Sucked Into A Quagmire, The Frightening Consequences Of State Breakdown And Self-interested Meddling By Afghanistan's Neighbours In The Period After Communist Rule Collapsed, And The Rise And Fall Of The Taliban. Incisive And Informative, The Book Mounts A Compelling Case For Partnership With The Afghans As They Seek To Reassemble Their Lives.--jacket. The Road To War -- Soviet Strategy, Tactics, And Dilemmas -- The Development Of Afghan Resistance -- The Karmal Period, 1979-1986 -- The Najibullah-gorbachev Period, 1986-1989 -- The Road To Soviet Withdrawal -- Consequences Of The Soviet-afghan War -- The Interregnum Of Najibullah, 1989-1992 -- The Rise And Fall Of The Rabbani Government, 1992-1996 -- The Rise And Rule Of The Taliban, 1994-2001 -- The Fall Of The Taliban. William Maley. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 284-321) And Index. A whole generation has grown up in Afghanistan knowing only war. The US-led operation to crush the ant-modernist Taliban movement and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida was simply the most recent in a series of interrelated struggles which for nearly a quarter of a century devastated much of the country and ruined the lives of millions of people. The Afghanistan Wars provides a meticulously-documented account of these waves of conflict. It explores in detail the roots of Afghanistan's slide into disorder in the late 1970s, how the Soviet Union came to the rescue of unworthy clients and was then sucked into a quagmire, the frightening consequences of state breakdown and self-interested meddling by Afghanistan's neighbours in the period after communist rule collapsed, and the rise and fall of the Taliban. Incisive and informative, the book mounts a compelling case for partnership with the Afghans as they seek to re-assemble their lives. William Maley offers an insight into Afghanistan's wars and the domestic, regional and international politics that have exposed the population of what was once one of the most stable states in Asia to enormous damage. Maley examines the Soviet-Afghan War, the Afghan Civil War and the ongoing conflict in 2002 in the context of Afghanistan's cultural, social, political and geographical complexities. These are complexities with which policy makers, journalists, students and scholars must now come to terms

Maley offers a valuable insight into Afghanistan's wars and the domestic, regional, and international politics that have exposed the population of what was once one of the most stable states in Asia to enormous damage.