Chapter 2 continues…


Afghanistan was a monarchy from 1747 until 1973 although the legitimacy of the state has always been somewhat precarious. Since independence in 1919, conflict was common between modernizers and more conservative Afghan factions, complicated by rivalries between the Pashtun and the non-Pashtun ethnic groups. The history of the country illustrates that, although those who held power claimed to represent the majority, their principal policy was one of ‘divide and rule.’ Another interesting phenomenon in Afghan political history is the significant influence of the neighbouring countries in imposing regimes in Kabul while the ordinary Afghans have had little opportunity to participate in the decision-making process that have affected their lives.
During the communist period from 1978-1992, there was growing tension between the traditionalists and those urban elites influenced by modern ideas. The latter had access to education and concepts of society that transcended both the local village-based hierarchies and those of the Islamic clergy, leading to growing tensions between traditionalists and modernizers. The government started to implement socialist programmes by issuing a series of eight decrees, including the land reform decree without much regard for consensus and social conventions.

As tensions grew within Afghanistan, so too did external pressures and influences upon the country. In the post-Second World War period, the USA emerged as the new and ascendant superpower as the result of which the “Great Game” of the previous century engaged in by Russia and Britain was replicated once more, this time between an expansionist USSR looking south, and the USA looking north from Pakistan, keen to influence events in Iran, Central Asia and China. It was during this period that a sizeable quantity of development assistance was poured into Afghanistan both by the USA and the USSR. The competition of the Cold War brought foreign aid from western sources as well as from the Soviet Union.


To be continued…