2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review of War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan 1978-1992 by Antonio Giustozzi, January 12, 2010
This review is from: War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Hardcover)
Having read Giustozzi's Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop I was eager to get stuck into his earlier study of the conflict in Afghanistan during the 1980s. First off this is an extremely ambitious book, drawing together the complex strands to provide a richer and more fulfilling picture of Afghanistan during the period. I came to this book having a reasonable knowledge of the chronology of the war in Afghanistan, but found most of the literature I could locate on the subject rather shallow and missing much in the detail regarding Afghanistan and its government during the conflict (for me the most important and the most interesting bit).
As Amazon offers no preview of the book here is a very brief overview of the book's structure. The book is broken into four parts. Part I `The Limits of `Sovietization'' deals with the social policies of the PDPA (issues such as land reform, female emancipation, and attempts to develop the regimes political base). Part II `The Afghan regular armed forces: reconstruction, reorganization and structural limits' is fairly self explanatory. Part III `The `Pacification Policy', 1980-1991' deals with, amongst other things, the Afghan governments national reconciliation policies and attempts to better utilise existing power structures. Part IV, `The role of the militias', deals with the Afghan government's efforts towards developing a viable system of militias as a means of extending control in the countryside, and of securing its long term survival.
The central thesis of the book is one of a vying competition in the Afghan government's efforts to provide and extend security between the compulsions of ideology and those of pragmatism. Essentially Giustozzi argues that elements of both were evident in the Afghan government's policies throughout the period 1979-92, but that on balance as time went on pragmatism came to predominate, with President Najibullah moving away from overtly ideological programmes and policies towards a more flexible government approach. This I felt was supported by Giustozzi's wider analysis, though I would have liked for greater expansion of his thesis, with articulation and exploration of it forming only a small fraction of the book's total length.
This book is most definitely not one for the casual reader; particularly as it demands a sizable amount of background knowledge of the overall history of the conflict (it does not provide even a brief overview). This is particularly the case regarding the circumstances of the Soviet invasion in 1979, and the historical background of the Amin regime which represents the immediate prelude to the period under analysis. This is not a criticism per se, rather advice as to how to get the best from the study. The author makes extensive use of Afghan government sources, particularly useful to the many people, which includes me, for whom problems both of access and of language mean this information would otherwise be beyond reach. The book is written in an academic (as opposed to journalistic) structure and style, focusing on discrete subject areas drawing on information from across the time period in question. It makes liberal use of statistical information both in the text and in the form of graphs and (58!) tables in the back of the book. This is both a strength and weakness of the book. On the plus side, it represents a bonus for the serious student as a very valuable resource for further study. On the minus side, the sheer volume of data on the page is sometimes difficult to process. Considering the depth of the research this was perhaps unavoidable.
I would urge present students of the Afghan conflict to look at this study to better understand the conflict of the 1980s free from the distortions of the cold war certainties through which it is often seen. The book would be valuable both as a tool for comparative or contextual study of the present conflict, or alternatively as a valuable starting point for those with the requisite skills looking to explore the ample room for further study of the period.
Overall this book does not represent an easy read, it is however superb in the breadth and depth of its analysis of a neglected subject.
Recommended
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELLENT!, October 30, 2001
This review is from: War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Hardcover)
Giustozzi knows more than any one about what was going on inside pro-soviet Afghanistan. I think he is also a good pupil of Prof. Halliday. Perhaps no other scholar knows more about the Afghan government and society in 1978-92.
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Giustozzi, the last word., April 3, 2001
This review is from: War, Politics and Society in Afghanistan, 1978-1992 (Hardcover)
War, politics and Society in afghanistan is the best book written on this very intricate topic. Every serious student of contemporary history have to face with this reality. Afghanistan was and still is the fulcrum of the world's equilibrium. Knowing Afghanistan means a lot!
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