Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in central Asia with an area of 251,772 square miles and a population of 29.9 million (2005 estimate). Important cities include Kabul, the capital, Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar-i Sharif. Afghanistan is bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and by China on the narrow Wakhan Corridor (a relic of the Great Game). High mountains and deserts dominate the landscape, with narrow river valleys providing most of the arable land. The largest agricultural region, irrigated by the Kunduz River, is in the north around the cities of Kunduz and Taloqan.

Socially, Afghanistan is comprised of many ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Pashtun, Tajiks, Hazara, and Uzbeks. The Pashtun and Tajiks speak distantly related Iranian-based languages. The Hazara, though believed to be ethnically related to the Mongols, speak the same form of Persian as the Tajiks. The Uzbeks speak Uzbeki, an Altaic language. The major language group is Persian, though administratively it is equal to Pashtu. Most of the population is Sunni Muslim although the Hazara and smaller groups in the northeast are Shi'a Muslims.

Though the area comprising Afghanistan shares a long history with both central Asia and south Asia, it was because of British fear that the region would provide a land route for a Russian attack on India that the era known as the Great Game evolved between competing Russian and British attempts to influence central Asia. Russia took over the areas north of the Amu Darya and the two competitors carved out Afghanistan as a buffer state between them. Pashtun kings ruled Afghanistan until an unpopular [Page 10]communist regime took power in 1978. Widespread dissatisfaction with the government caused the Soviet Union to invade and begin a 10-year occupation. This saw the rise of the mujahidin, traditionalists and Islamists who drove out the Soviets with the aid of the United States and other Muslim countries. A civil war erupted after this victory that augmented a major humanitarian crisis of millions of refugees scattered worldwide. This period of civil chaos allowed a group known as the Taliban to take control of much of the country. Many of the warring factions from the civil war coalesced into the Northern Alliance, which battled the Taliban until September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda, a Taliban client, attacked the United States. With aerial and ground aid from the United States, the Northern Alliance overcame the Taliban.

Twenty-three years of near-continuous conflict has shattered both Afghanistan's economy and infrastructure. The majority of people are employed in agriculture, though it remains dangerous because of the large number of landmines that are leftover from the conflicts. Security also remains precarious as the Taliban have been allowed to reform and warlords dominate much of the countryside. These well-armed men rely on revenue from poppy crops that provide an estimated 85 percent of the world's heroin. For many farmers, this is the only crop that will grow in the rocky soils of the mountains. However, this provides a difficult challenge for the new government, who cannot hope to rule effectively while this narco-economy prevails.

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