Abstract: Afghanistan's position as a crossroads in Central Asia made it part of the 19th-century Great Game of imperialism and brings it to international strategic prominence once again. Rashid is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review who has covered Afghanistan's changing fortunes since the 1978 Soviet invasion. In his second book, he covers the origin and rise of the Taliban, its concepts of Islam on questions of gender roles and drugs, and the importance of the country to the development of energy resources in the region.

Includes bibliographical references.

Contents: Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Kandahar 1994: The Origins of the Taliban -- ch. 2 Herat 1995: God's Invincible Soldiers -- ch. 3 Kabul 1996: Commander of the Faithful -- ch. 4 Mazar-e-Sharif 1997: Massacre in the North -- ch. 5 Bamiyan 1998-99: The Never-Ending War -- ch. 6 Challenging Islam: The New-Style Fundamentalism of the Taliban -- ch. 7 Secret Society: The Taliban's Political and Military Organization -- ch. 8 A Vanished Gender: Women, Children and Taliban Culture -- ch. 9 High on Heroin: Drugs and the Taliban Economy -- ch. 10 Global Jihad: The Arab-Afghans and Osama Bin Laden -- ch. 11 Dictators and Oil Barons: The Taliban and Central Asia, Russia, Turkey and Israel -- ch. 12 Romancing the Taliban 1: The Battle for Pipelines 1994-96 -- ch. 13 Romancing the Taliban 2: The Battle for Pipelines 1997-99 -- The USA and the Taliban -- ch. 14 Master or Victim: Pakistan's Afghan War -- ch. 15 Shia Versus Sunni: Iran and Saudi Arabia -- ch. 16 Conclusion: The Future of Afghanistan -- ch. 17 The Taliban Resurgent 2000-2009.

English