I. B. Tauris & Company
Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
Key Metrics
- Amin Saikal
- I. B. Tauris & Company
- Paperback
- 9781780761220
- 8.5 X 5.4 X 0.9 inches
- 1 pounds
- History > Asia - Central Asia
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Afghanistan's recent history is a sad one: Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime; and then the US invasion and the multi-national occupation after the events of 11 September 2001. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism? In reconstructing the tempestuous narrative of modern Afghanistan, Amin Saikal provides a sweeping new understanding of its troubled past and present. He identifies the country's inability to develop stable political structures as stemming from the inter-dynastic rivalry (complicated by polygamy) that scarred successive royal families from the end of the eighteenth century until the pro-Soviet Communist coup of April 1978, all exacerbated by foreign interventions - feeding on fragile domestic structures - and the rise and fall of different ideological streams. Here, for the first time, is an up-to-date analysis of the era of the Taliban's rule, the effects of US domination in the country and attempts to negotiate a US withdrawal - including talks about talks with the Taliban themselves.
This book, which sets the crisis of Afghanistan in the context of the country's modern history and social structures, makes a major and highly original contribution towards a better and more nuanced understanding of this ill-fated land. It is the definitive study of Afghanistan and its troubles in national, regional and international contexts from 1747 to the present day.
Author Bio
Amin Saikal is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University. Professor Saikal has been a visiting fellow at Princeton University, Cambridge University, and the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in International Relations (1983-1988). He was awarded the Order of Australia (AM) in January 2006 for his services to international community and education as well as an advisor and author.
He is the author of numerous works on the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia. His latest publications include Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival, London: I.B. Tauris, 2012; The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule, Princeton: Princeton University Press 2009; Islam and the West: Conflict or Cooperation?, London: Palgrave, 2003. (Co-editor) American Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: From Bush to Obama, London: Routledge, 2012; ‘Islamism, the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan’, The Cambridge History of the Cold War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
He has also published numerous scholarly articles in International Journals, and chapters in edited volumes. Further, he has published many Op-Ed pieces in a number of national and international dailies, including The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Guardian, and is a frequent commentator on issues related to the Middle East and Central Asia on radio and television.
Source: Middle East Institute Washington, D.C.
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