External Actors in the Afghan Problem
continues....

Citha D. Maass situates the Afghan conflict in the category of protracted conflicts. He argues that the protracted nature of the conflict has led to a shift in the nature of war: “from proxy war to highly externalized civil war.” Taking the year of Soviet intervention (1979) as the reference point, he points out that the conflict then had immediately assumed strong elements of a proxy war between the former superpowers the Soviet Union and the United States.

In the 1980s the Soviet Union and the United States found Afghanistan as a battleground in their global competition. Afghanistan, at that point of time had become one of the greatest pawns in the international power game; this was supplemented with the conflicting ambitions of the regional powers. The 1978 Communist coup in Afghanistan transformed the country to a large extent. Government repression of different segments of the society started a series of violent reaction. Despite a popular revolt and little control over the countryside, the Kabul regime was able to maintain the semblance of a central state
with working institutions.

To be continued....