Recovering the Frontier State War, Ethnicity, and the State in Afghanistan

Incessant war and insurgency has led to mobilization along ethnic and religious lines in Afghanistan, having a profound effect on the kinds of institutions that have perpetuated over time. Recovering the Frontier State analyzes preemptive and reactive intervention by neighboring states and their links to ethnic groups inside Afghanistan and explores the geopolitical history of social groups of Afghanistan, with an intensive account of the rise of power contenders as a function of their history, their links with external actors, and their traditional position in the indigenous vertical hierarchy. While Rasul Bakhsh Rais deems the legacy of the previous intervention for containment as a major contributing factor to the disorder in Afghanistan's state and society, he draws on lessons from the past intervention to assuage current obstacles and stalemates that are hindering political, social, and economic development in Afghanistan. Book jacket.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais is professor of political science in the Department of Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences.