Either completely ignored in world affairs or lying at the center of confrontation, Afghanistan has ricocheted between these two extremes for over two centuries. First, it was the focal point of colonial rivalry between Russia and Britain in the nineteenth century. More recently, it became the last battlefield that pitted Soviet and Western influence in the Cold War. The ignominy of the Red Army’s Afghan adventure, ending in its withdrawal in 1989, hastened the failure of a century of Soviet political experimentation and allowed the rise of a new Asia and evolution toward a new global configuration. Nevertheless, Afghanistan itself remains a region of seemingly insoluble turmoil and constant crisis.Despite the current disinterest by major world powers, Afghanistan’s impact on stability, progress, and regional cooperation remains crucial to Central Asian, Middle Eastern, and South Asian well-being. Not only does the geographic position of the country give it important status, but the conflict that continues to destabilize the region can be located in the confrontation among three forces: Mullah, the traditional element of an archetypal, publicly pious Muslim society; Marx, the old and new communists and associated secular socioeconomic forces; and Mujahid, the fighters for a Muslim Afghanistan, mobilized as much by ardent nationalism as by their religious zeal. These three elements, which rarely are able to cooperate, have held power in Afghanistan in turns since the Sovi