Afghanistanding

Orbis

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 405-418

  Garfinkle, Adam ^a  

^a Foreign Policy Research Institute   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0041017212     PISSN: 00304387     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/s0030-4387(99)80079-9     Document Type: Article

References (8)

1. In the United States and Europe, it is common to see Iran's strategic challenges as having to do mainly with Iraq and the Persian Gulf. But seen from Tehran, Iranians also must concern themselves with Turkey, Azeri irredentism, and a Sunni Islamic country - Pakistan - that has twice as many people as Iran and nuclear weapons to boot.
2. See Douglas Jehl, "Iran Warns Afghan Rulers Use of Force is 'Quite Near,'" New York Times, Sept. 12, 1998.
3. Of Afghanistan's neighbors, Turkmenistan has the best chance of standing peaceably aside. There are few Turkmen in Afghanistan and the border regions between the two countries are sparsely populated.
4. "The Decision To Shift Afghan Refugees to Camps," Foreign Broadcast Information Service-Near East/South Asia, Mar. 10, 1999, from Wahdat, Mar. 6, 1999.
5. Well summarized in Amin Saikal, "Afghanistan's Ethnic Conflict," Survival, Summer 1998, p. 121.
6. The Taliban formally prohibited the manufacture of opium from poppies in February 1999. See Hugh Pope, "Taliban, Foes Begin Afghanistan Peace Talks," Wall Street Journal, Mar. 12, 1999.
7. Tim Weiner, "Terror Suspect Said to Anger Afghan Hosts," New York Times, Mar. 4, 1999.
8. In any event, China certainly is no fan of the Taliban even though its Pakistani ally is. China worries about a Muslim revival among the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and the Taliban example can be nothing but trouble for Beijing in this regard.