War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992
 334 pp., Hardcover ISBN: 9780878407583 (0878407588) March 2000 LC: 99-17020 Sales Rights: U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central and Latin America EXPLORE THIS TITLE DescriptionTable of Contents Reviews |
War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992
This book is the first to analyze the institutions, successes, and failures of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the pro-Soviet regime that sought to dominate the country during the years of the Soviet military presence. Antonio Giustozzi explores the military, political, and social strategies of the predominantly urban and Marxist regime as it struggled—and ultimately failed—to win the support of a largely rural and Islamic population.
Drawing on many Soviet materials not previously used by Western writers, including unpublished Red Army documents and interviews with participants, Giustozzi provides valuable new insights into the cold war and the rise of Islamic revolt. Antonio Giustozzi received a PhD in international relations at the London School of Economics.
Reviews
"An important book."—Journal of Peace Research "Giustozzi does a good job of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the [People's Democratic Party] regime."—Choice "This analysis constitutes a new way of looking at what happened in Afghanistan and helps considerably in understanding the difficulties which have beset Afghanistan in the last few years."—Malcolm Yapp, University of London Table of Contents Introduction The Limits of 'Sovietization' 1. The original social base of the 'Democratic Republic' and its transfromations 2. Difficulties in the implementation of the social program of the Revolution 3. The building up of the social base fo the Saur Revolution and its limits 4. Reluctant concessions and co-optations The Afghan Regular Armed Forces: Reconstruction, Reorganization and Structural Limits 5. Karmal's 'new model army' and its role in the war 6. The political shortcomings of the armed forces and the party response 7. The efforts to build up quantitatively the armed forces and their limits 8. Attempts to address the strategic problems 9. (In-)Effectiveness of the Afghan armed forces 10. Perverse effects on the army of the transformations caused by the war The 'Pacification Policy,' 1980-1991 11. The early approaches 12. The first political strategy of 'pacification' 13. The National Reconciliation 14. Overall considerations on the policy of 'pacification' The Role of the Militias 15. Origins of the militia system 16. The rise in importance of the militias 17. The place of the militias in the economy of the war 18. Perverse effects of the spread of the militias 19. Conclusion: The Fall of Najibullah 20. The aftermath: Afghanistan's disintegration Appendixes A. Statistical Tables B. Maps C. Graphs Bibliography Index |