Why Intervention Hasn't Helped Afghanistan

After the Taliban government collapsed in the autumn of 2001, hopes were high for a fresh start that would bring security, women's rights, development and democracy to Afghanistan. This book reveals why and how these hopes have not been fulfilled. Lee explores the emergence of the modern Afghan state, tracing its origins to the extensive empire created by Ahmad Shah (d.1772), a military leader from the Durrani Pashtun or Afghan (the words were originally synonyms) tribal confederacy, based in Kandahar. After his death the empire gradually shrank and by the 1830s had been reduced to what is now eastern Afghanistan.