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Drawing on many Soviet materials not previously used by Western writers, including unpublished Red Army documents and interviews with participants, Giustozzi provides valuable new insights into the cold war and the rise of Islamic revolt.
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
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
Awards
Winner of the 2008 Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association
About the Author
Antonio Giustozzi received a PhD in international relations at the London School of Economics.
