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After nearly twenty years of occupation and reconstruction, Afghanistan lacks a modern state. The dominant discourse absolves failures in the neoliberal approach to nation-building attributing Afghanistan’s weak state to its inherent tribalism, a culture of corruption, and a historical absence of modern state institutions. Contrary to the dominant discourse, this paper provides a history of Afghan state formation and political modernization in the twentieth century. Afghanistan’s modernization was internally contested, but by the 1970s the country had the features of a modern, secular state. It has been foreign intervention over the last forty years, in support of anti-modern, reactionary forces, that unmade the modern Afghan state. The neoliberal approach post-9/11, adopting the language of good governance and capacity-building, has made Afghanistan perpetually dependent on foreign assistance, rendering it a phantom state while erasing its history and undermining the political and institutional structures for a united, independent, and peaceful Afghanistan.

Is Afghanistan's government doomed to fall soon after most NATO forces leave in 2014, as many in the government, intelligence, and academic communities seem to think? This debate has echoes in the country's past. As such, this study explores the 1989-1992 time frame, a period during which international expectations of Afghan collapse proved premature, but ultimately accurate. In spite of assessments that the government of the Republic of Afghanistan might not even last until the Soviet withdrawal was complete, Mohammad Najibullah (1947-96)'s regime outlived the USSR itself, collapsing only after Soviet assistance dried up.

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.

On 15 February 1989, Gromov, the LCST’s 40th Army’s last commander, declared that there were no Soviet, or Shuravi as the locals called them, soldiers left in Afghanistan as he crossed the bridge over the Amu-Daria River. Najibullah meanwhile continued his national reconciliation policy, stabilizing his regime thanks to the mujahideen’s dissensions and Moscow’s continuing support. He hence managed to remain in power until April 1992 when a mujahideen offensive, the end of Soviet support, and a coup inside the regime finally forced him to seek shelter in the UN headquarters in Kabul. Four years later, the Taliban would gruesomely

Najibullah, long known by his moniker Najib, became the PDPA’s general secretary in May 1986. Testifying to their difficulty in managing PDPA politics, the Soviets had to stage a protracted campaign to cajole Karmal into leaving peacefully. The decision to get rid of him was a difficult one for many Soviets. Despite his flaws, Parcham’s old leader was a believer in the communist ideal. In a blasphemous way, he would tell Kryuchkov that: “A believing Muslim reveres God, his Prophet, and the first righteous caliphs. My feelings for the Soviet Union, its leaders are close to that reverence. This is

An ex-president's bloated body still dangled from a noose outside the palace, but shops reopened and people walked the sunny streets today as victorious Islamic forces moved swiftly to establish control over Kabul. Exhausted by years of rocket attacks and street battles, some Afghans were cheered by the end of fighting. Others worried over the prospect of strict Islamic rule, which the Taliban rebels have imposed in other parts of the country under their rule and which they proclaimed nationwide today. Islamic law includes severe corporal punishment and restrictions on the role of women. The Taliban described ousted President Burhanuddin Rabbani, Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and top military commander Ahmed Shah Massoud as \"national criminals\" for not surrendering to accept a Taliban amnesty.

Islamic guerrilla fighters seized control of Afghanistan's capital this morning after two days of heavy fighting, quickly hanged a former pro-Soviet president, and proclaimed a strict Islamic state. President Najibullah, who had been in hiding for four years since losing power, was seized from a United Nations compound and executed. His bloated, beaten body was hanging from a cement lamppost outside the presidential palace just hours after the opposition Taliban militia seized Kabul from retreating government forces. Witnesses said the triumphant Taliban insurgents met little resistance as they rolled into the city about 1 a.m. after two days of heavy fighting in the outskirts of the capital. They said celebratory bursts of machine-gun fire, Islamic chants and passages from the Koran intoned through bullhorns resounded through largely empty streets as the militiamen set up checkpoints and occupied vacated government buildings.

Sotirios Mousouris, the representative in Afghanistan of Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said the aid was put together after a week of meetings among United Nations agencies. The United Nations is bolstering its staff in several provincial capitals, Mr. Mousouris said, and the aid will be distributed from there until there is peace in Kabul.

Identified by federal authorities as \"Ja'far the Pilot\" because of his aviation skills, El Shukrijumah was first outlined to federal investigators by al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after his capture in 2003. Mohammed is awaiting trial as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director, said the alleged links to Shukrijumah are \"pretty significant.\" He said it was unclear whether [Najibullah Zazi] was offering up the al-Qaeda operative's name to win a lighter sentence.

Director of Consular Services at the Foreign Ministry, Ahmed Saeed Al-Dhaheri today received Dr.