The War for Afghanistan: A Very Brief History

The War for Afghanistan: A Very Brief History: From "Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History"

THOMAS BARFIELD
Series: Princeton Shorts
Copyright Date: 2010
Edition: DGO - Digital original
Published by: Princeton University Press
Pages: 62
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7rx2r
Search for reviews of this book
  • Cite this Item
  • Book Info
    The War for Afghanistan: A Very Brief History
    Book Description:

    When it invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the United States sought to do something previous foreign powers had never attempted: to create an Afghani state where none existed. More than a decade on, the new regime in Kabul remains plagued by illegitimacy and ineffectiveness. What happened? As Thomas Barfield shows, the history of previous efforts to build governments in Afghanistan does much to explain the difficulties besetting this newest experiment.

    Princeton Shorts are brief selections taken from influential Princeton University Press books and produced exclusively in ebook format. Providing unmatched insight into important contemporary issues or timeless passages from classic works of the past, Princeton Shorts enable you to be an instant expert in a world where information is everywhere but quality is at a premium.

    eISBN: 978-1-4008-4314-5
    Subjects: History, Anthropology, Political Science, Zoology, Sociology

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-iii)
  2. AFGHANISTAN ENTERS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
    (pp. 1-58)

    The arrival of the United states in Afghanistan to expel the Taliban marked the fourth time in 160 years that a foreign power put troops on the ground there. But while the British in the nineteenth century invaded with plans to replace the existing regimes, and the soviets invaded in the twentieth to preserve the one they supported, the United states invaded Afghanistan at a time when the state structure had ceased to function. It would need to create a new state to restore stability in the country. In the past this was done by supporting a client political elite...

  3. Back Matter
    (pp. 59-59)