Author: William Maley
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 253
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143028022
Description
A Comprehensive and up-to-date account of the Taliban's rise to power, its social roots and political implications.
In late 1994, a new force unexpectedly emerged in the politics of war ravaged Afghanistan - the Taliban. This was ostensibly a movement of religious students, inspired by a vision which their leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was said to have received in a dream. First it seized the southern city of Kandhar , then in 1995 it took over the ancient city of Heart, and finally, in September 1996, the capital Kabul fell it its forces. The Taliban enforced rigorous Sharia laws and restricted the employment and movement of women under a strict Islamic regime. Its draconian religious decrees and public executions of political opponents and criminals immediately captured world attention. Yet much about the Taliban remains mysterious.
The book looks beyond popular stereotypes to explore the roots of the Taliban movement, the factors that contributed to its sudden rise and the implications of Taliban mobilization for the stability of Afghanistan and the surrounding region. The authors, all well-known specialists in the area, are sensitive both to the complexity of Afghanistan and the surrounding region. The authors, all well-known specialists in the area, are sensitive both to the complexity of Afghan society and to the fluidity of Afghan politics in the wake of fifteen years of upheaval and destruction. Together they provide a many-faceted account of one of the most extraordinary phenomena of the contemporary world
Contents
Preface
Preface and Acknowledgements
The Authors
INTRODUCTION : INTERPRETING THE TALIBAN
Afghanistan's path to crisis
The northern crisis
The social and doctrinal roots of the Taliban
On fundamentalism, traditionalism and totalitarianism
Making sense of the Taliban
PART I : THE RISE OF THE TALIBAN
Political legitimacy
Elite settlement
Intra-party difficulties
Pakistan's interference
HOW THE TALIBAN BECAME A MILITRY FORCE
The military rise of the Taliban
The South
Kabul
The West
Kabul again
The campaign in the east and the seizure of Kabul
PAKISTAN AND THE TALIBAN
The Taliban and the Jamiat-e Ulma-i Islam
The Taliban and the transport mafia
The Taliban and the Bhutto government
The Taliban and Pakistan's provincial government
The Taliban and the ISI
PART II : THE TALIBAN AND THE WORLD
THE UNITED STATES AND THE TALIBAN
Shaping US Policy
The evolution of US policy
US interests and the Taliban
Building support for pipelines
The breakdown of US policy
RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA AND THE TALIBAN
Responding to disintegration
The Taliban's northern campaign
Arms supplies
SAUDI ARABIA, IRAN AND THE CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN
Period One : 1979-1988
Period Two : 1988-1992
Period Three : 1992 to the present
Shifting interests and strategies
The influences of the wider world
PART III : THE TALIBAN AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF AFGHANISTAN
Dilemmas of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan
Key dilemmas
Reservations about the UN's agenda
The challenge of the Taliban
The eyes of the world
AFGHAN WOMEN UNDER THE TALIBAN
Actions and reactions
Afghan responses
IS AFGHANISTAN ON THE BRINK OF ETHNIC AND TRIBAL DISINTEGRATION?
Introduction : The ethnic system
The main ethnic groups in the Afghan conflict
The tribal system
Ethnicity and tribalism : dangers and opportunities
THE UN IN AFGHANISTAN : 'DOING ITS BEST' OR
'Failure of a Mission'?
Peacemaking diplomacy
UN mediation in Afghanistan
The failure of the Mestiri Mission
Missing the heart of the Afghan problem
HAS ISLAMISM A FUTURE IN AFGHANISTAN?
From traditionalism to fundamentalism to Islamism.. and back
Afghan Islamism and the rest of the Muslim world
The Afghan context
The Taliban and the future of political Islam in Afghanistan
THE FUTURE OF THE STATE AND THE STRUCTURE OF COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE IN AFGHANISTAN
A Political ecologica approach
Constitutive cultural principles, identities and political culture
Traditional (imperial) states and community self-governance
The development of a strong dynastic state and the destruction of self-governing communities
Legacies of Hukumat-e mutamarkiz-e qawi
From military victory to political misery : contingencies
The Possibility of a new relation between civil society and the future state
Index