While witnessing the continuous coverage of violence in Afghanistan, it can be difficult to remember the events that led to the ongoing conflict. However, in order to understand the struggles of today, informed people need to comprehend the events of years past. This invaluable volume, while not simplifying the Afghanistan War, provides a thoughtful and sensitive account of key events, groups, and people involved in the war, including the country’s colonial history, Al Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden. More significant information is presented in sidebars throughout the text, while photographs provide visual support for this most timely and important subject.

Explaining the connection between economics and violent extremism, this book argues that American foreign policy must be rebalanced with a greater emphasis on social inclusion and shared prosperity in order to mitigate the root causes of conflict. Rosenberger argues that economic coercion has usually proven counterproductive, and that a militarized American foreign policy too often results in frustration and strategic failure. He analyses this theory through a number of case studies, from the Treaty of Versailles to the more recent issues of Israel in Gaza, US sanctions against Iran, the US backed, Saudi-led boycott of Qatar and Donald Trump’s trade war against China. He concludes that the economic logic of social inclusion and shared prosperity demonstrated in Jean Monnet’s European Coal and Steel Community would be a more successful strategy in reducing the demand for violence in the civil wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Syria. This book will be of particular relevance for courses on American Foreign Policy, International Relations and International Political Economy and seminars on the Near East and South Asia. Professional economists, diplomats and military officers in America and in the Near East and South Asia will also find the argument useful.

Offers a candid view of a war that played a significant role in the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union. Presents analysis absolutely vital to Western policymakers, as well as to political, diplomatic, and military historians and anyone interested in Russian and Soviet history. Provides insights regarding current and future Russian struggles in ethnic conflicts both at and within their borders, struggles that could potentially destroy the Russian Federation.