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"Afghanistan History 20th century."
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What We Won
In February 1989, the CIA's chief in Islamabad famously cabled headquarters a simple message: \"We Won.\" It was an understated coda to the most successful covert intelligence operation in American history.
InWhat We Won, CIA and National Security Council veteran Bruce Riedel tells the story of America's secret war in Afghanistan and the defeat of the Soviet 40th Red Army in the war that proved to be the final battle of the cold war. He seeks to answer one simple question-why did this intelligence operation succeed so brilliantly?
Riedel has the vantage point few others can offer: He was ensconced in the CIA's Operations Center when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979. The invasion took the intelligence community by surprise. But the response, initiated by Jimmy Carter and accelerated by Ronald Reagan, was a masterful intelligence enterprise.
Many books have been written about intelligence failures-from Pearl Harbor to 9/11. Much less has been written about how and why intelligence operations succeed. The answer is complex. It involves both the weaknesses and mistakes of America's enemies, as well as good judgment and strengths of the United States.
Riedel introduces and explores the complex personalities pitted in the war-the Afghan communists, the Russians, the Afghan mujahedin, the Saudis, and the Pakistanis. And then there are the Americans-in this war, no Americans fought on the battlefield. The CIA did not send officers into Afghanistan to fight or even to train.
In 1989, victory for the American side of the cold war seemed complete. Now we can see that a new era was also beginning in the Afghan war in the 1980s, the era of the global jihad. This book examines the lessons we can learn from this intelligence operation for the future and makes some observations on what came next in Afghanistan-and what is likely yet to come.
eBook
Repression, Resistance, and Women in Afghanistan
Afghan women have faced an exhaustive struggle in the battle to change their status and improve their situation. Emadi takes a long look at the role of development and modernization policies implemented by the state in the pre- and post-Soviet eras, under the Taliban, and beyond. He finds that such policies have failed to bring about much- needed change and improvement for women. Modernization strategies benefited only a small segment of urban women and left the plight of rural women unchanged. Although a small segment of middle- and upper-class women organized themselves and fought to bring about changes in their status and to end gender inequality, their efforts alone did not meet with much success. Islamic orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the Taliban era restricted women's freedom of movement, access to education, and medical care. Using personal accounts not readily available to researchers or scholars, Emadi explores the diverse factors that contributed to women's oppression both at home and in society. This study provides a detailed analysis of state policies toward women's emancipation within the context of a traditional Islamic society. It chronicles the course of the women's movement and women's organizations still active in the political arena and puts forth an alternative plan to involve women in the reconstruction process in both urban and rural areas.
eBook
The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan
Focusing on Afghanistan's relations with the West during the latter half of the 20th century, this study offers new insights on the long-term origins of the nation's recent tragedies. Roberts finds that, since the 1930s in particular, Afghanistan pursued policies far more complex, and considerably more pro-Western, than previous studies have surmised. By the end of the Second World War, Britain and Afghanistan seemed headed toward an extensive partnership in military and economic affairs. Opportunities to cement Afghanistan to the West existed, but ultimately ran afoul of regional politics, shortsighted policy, and indifference. The rise of the Indian nationalist movement and the eventual partition of India would have strategic ramifications for Afghanistan. Pakistan and India, weakened and poised against each other, saw no reason to aid the Kabul regime, leaving only the United States as a potential benefactor. Successive American administrations, however, denied most Afghan requests. When the Eisenhower administration extended support to Pakistan, it alienated Afghan leaders, who then chose to broker a deal with the Soviet Union. Roberts analyzes recent American policy toward Afghanistan and its neighbors, clarifying the current situation and offering guidelines for future relations.
eBook
The defiant border : the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands in the era of decolonization, 1936-65
\"The Defiant Border explores why the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands have remained largely independent of state controls from the colonial period into the twenty-first century. This book looks at local Pashtun tribes' modes for evading first British colonial, then Pakistani, governance; the ongoing border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan; and continuing interest in the region from Indian, US, British, and Soviet actors. It reveals active attempts first by British, then by Pakistani, agents to integrate the tribal region, ranging from development initiatives to violent suppression. The Defiant Border also considers the area's influence on relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India, as well as its role in the United States' increasingly global Cold War policies. Ultimately, the book considers how a region so peripheral to major centers of power has had such an impact on political choices throughout the eras of empire, decolonization, and superpower competition, up to the so-called 'War on Terror.' One of the only historical studies of Pakistan's Pashtun tribal area (post-1947), which complements existing anthropological literature on the region and histories of the colonial era to provide readers with a fuller understanding of the region. Integrates histories of South Asia, decolonization, and the global Cold War, which provides readers with a holistic view of the region by recognizing the interconnections between international diplomacy, regional developments, subaltern movements, and colonial legacies. Considers the impact of non-state actors--Pashtun tribes--on South Asian state-building, which complements work done on state-building in India, extends understanding of the impact of peripheral areas on state power and practice, and expands understanding of the history of Pakistan\"--From publisher's website.
Book
Afgantsy
A timely and eye-opening account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979-89), from the high politics of the Kremlin to the lonely Russian conscripts in remote mountain outposts.
eBook
A Political and Economic History of the Jews of Afghanistan
A Political and Economic History of the Jews of Afghanistan by Sara Koplik describes the situation of Jews in that country during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly 1839-1952. It examines the political, economic and social conditions they faced as religious minorities. The work focuses upon harsh governmental economic policies of the 1930s and 1940s spearheaded by 'Abd al-Majid Khan Zabuli which caused the impoverishment and suffering of both the local community and refugees from Soviet Central Asia. The question of Nazi influence in Afghanistan is addressed, with the author arguing that it was mainly limited to the economic sphere. An examination of the appeal of Zionism and the community's immigration to Israel is included.
eBook