The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan: Mass Mobilization, Civil War, and the Future of the Region

by N. Nojumi

Overview

This book describes the turbulent political history of Afghanistan from the communist upheaval of the 1970s through to the aftermath of the events of 11 September 2001. It reviews the importance of the region to external powers and explains why warfare and instability have been endemic. The author analyses in detail the birth of the Taliban and the bloody rise to power of fanatic Islamists, including Osama bin Laden, in the power vacuum following the withdrawal of US aid. Looking forward, Nojumi explores the ongoing quest for a third political movement in Afghanistan - an alternative to radical communists or fanatical Islamists and suggests the support that will be neccessary from the international community in order for such a movement to survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312295844
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/23/2002
Edition description:	2002
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

NEAMATOLLAH NOJUMI, who was raised in Afghanistan, was a participant in the Mujahideen fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A frequent speaker on the politics of Afghanistan, he has appeared on or consulted with major television news shows. He is currently at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, MA.

Table of Contents

Introduction Historical Background The Political Elements of Afghan Society The Theory of Mass Mobilization Mass Mobilization in Afghanistan Violence: A source for Authority Traditional Political System Modern Political Parties in Afghanistan The DRA's Social and Economic Reforms Violence, the Leading Element of Mobilization The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan The Phenomena of Civil War In Afghanistan Politicization of Ethnic Groups The PDPA & Ethnic Groups Centralism Against Individualism and Autonomy Zonal Division of Afghanistan The Afghan Mujahedin and Mass Mobilization The First Phase of Civil War The Formation of a Third Movement Missing the Only Chance The Rise of Taliban The Source of Taliban Forces in Afghanistan The Taliban Tactics and Strategies The Political Ideology of Taliban Taliban Advance Toward Mazr-e-Sharif Taliban Advance in The North The Road into the Future Fraction in the Taliban Leadership Afghanistan in the International System The Peace Efforts Conclusions Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

'The Rise of the Taliban is indispensable reading for people wishing to understand Afghanistan's socio-economic landscape and bloody history since the 1979 Soviet invasion. Nojumi is ideally positioned to provide the context critical to understanding the obstacles and opportunities ahead in achieving peace for Afghanistan.' - Ambassador Peter Thomsen, former Special Envoy to the Afghan Resistance

'Woven into this history of abortive state-building is the constant of multifacted outside intervention...' - Foreign Affairs

'This book is essential reading for anyone curious about the Taliban's presence in Afghanistan.' - Toronto Globe & Mail

'...an important contribution to our understanding of the globalization of terror, especially its roots in the Afghanistan experience.' - Asian Affairs

'...timely and authentic...[with] details unavailable elsewhere...' - Choice

'The Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan contains some valuable information and interpretations concerning recent events in Afghanistan.' - M. E. Yapp, Times Literary Supplement

'This book provides a comprehensive historical account and an interesting analysis of Afghanistan's political developments since the 1970s.' - ECPR Newsletter

From the Publisher

Nojumi's 'ground up' analysis provides a rich resource for policymakers, journalists, and the general public seeking insight.

Thomas Gouttierre

...indispensable reading for people wishing to understand Afghanistan's socioeconomic landscape and bloody history...

Peter Thomsen

Essential reading.

Toronto Globe and Mail

An informed and instructive analysis helping readers fathom the complexities with which Western policy makers must now come to terms.

William Maley

Nojumi is ideally positioned to provide the context critical to understanding the obstacles and opportunities ahead in achieving peace for Afghanistan.

Nojumi, a former member of the Mujahadeen who fought the Soviet invasion and a contributor to humanitarian efforts to help displaced Afghans, offers a committed but often barely intelligible attempt to explain the historical, political and cultural circumstances behind the Taliban's ascent to power. The author, who was raised in Afghanistan, describes how decades of war and foreign interference eroded the traditional relationship between an Afghani central government and the local tribal councils, or jirgas, destroyed an economy based on agricultural production and "watered the seeds of Islamic radicalism." Afghan citizens initially greeted the Taliban with hope, he writes, but "many quickly lost their hope in the dusty field of [its] militaristic, ethnic, and religious ultra-supremacy approach"; the Taliban has paid no more attention to the country's "national ideology" than did the Marxist/Leninist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, whose 1978 coup led to the 1979 Soviet invasion. Nojumi's discussions of the phenomenon of mass mobilization which he defines as a political organization's efforts to induce broad social change weigh down his account with unnecessary and garbled attempts at theory. Such a complicated history cries out for a structure based on chronology and on narrative. Instead this text is so disorganized, so riddled with confusing or even meaningless sentences ( "Each event evolved and occurred because of previous events," for example) that most readers will find themselves too frustrated to keep going. Illus. not seen by PW. (Jan. 28) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

During the ten years (1979-88) of Soviet rule in Afghanistan, Nojumi was active in the mujahedin resistance, fighting for the return of independence to his native country. Now he is an independent scholar living near Boston. Here he has written a detailed account of the Soviet period plus the following years until the Taliban took effective control of the country in 1996. Drawing primarily on personal notes and diaries, he describes the events as a contest among the three forces of nationalism, Islam, and modernization and as a process of mass mobilization, which he believes is necessary to bring about political change. However, his theoretical framework is poorly explained, and his story frequently bogs down in the minutiae of thrust and parry of the long struggle for power. At this time, when the Taliban figure so prominently in the news, all libraries need something current on the topic; better choices would be Ahmed Rashid's Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (LJ 4/1/00) or Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (New York Univ., 1998). Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

An awkwardly written history of Afghanistan that nonetheless provides a context for understanding events that have swept the country in the past couple months, from former Afghan mujahideen Nojumi.

Kirkus Reviews