A Beautiful Week Yet Again

Thomas Berry

March 31, 2010

International Relations

Professor Sean

Afghanistan

Created in 1747 through the unification of the Pashtun tribes by Ahmad Shah Durrani, Afghanistan has had a colored past. In 1919, the country gained independence from Britain and tried to start a democracy that ultimately lead to a coup in 1973 and 5 years later lead to a Communist counter-coup. In 1979 the USSR entered the country to aid the Afghan Communist regime that began a ten yearlong destructive war. Because of fierce international pressure, the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. Between 1989 and 1996, Afghanistan went through numerous civil wars that ultimately ended up with the Taliban gaining control. Following September 11, 2001, a US, allied and anti-Taliban Northern Alliance military force overthrew the Taliban. Following the Bonn Conference, in 2004 Afghanistan held a presidential election and the following year held national assembly elections. In 2009, president Hamid Karzai won re-election, but despite hard efforts on his part and that of the new Afghan government, Taliban resurgences have continued to make the country unstable.

Afghanistan is in the continent of Asia and the area known as the Middle East. It has a total land area of 652,230 sq km and it the 41^st largest country. In relative size, it is slightly smaller than Texas. It borders six other countries including, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It has an arid to semiarid climate with cold winters and hot summers. The terrain is mostly rugged mountains with plains in both the southwest and north. It has the highest point of just less than 7,500 m. Afghanistan has many natural resources ranging from natural gas and petroleum to precious stones, coal, copper, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore and salt. Out of all the land in Afghanistan only 12.13% is arable land and only .21% has permanent crops. Only 27,200 sq km of land is irrigated and has limited sources of adequate fresh water. Earthquakes, flooding and droughts also occur in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s population is roughly 28,395,716 with a life expectancy of 44.4 years. Men slightly out numbered the women and the median age in the country is 17. Only 28.1% of the population is literate. The main ethnic groups are Pashtun with 42% of the population, Tajik with 27%, Hazara with 9%, Uzbek with 9%, Aimak with 4%, Turkmen with 3%, Baloch with 2% and other being 4%. The main religion is Sunni Muslim with 80% followed by Shia Muslim with 19% and 1% being other. The official languages are Dari and Pashto but many other languages and dialects are spoken.

Some of the main international problems facing Afghanistan are the number of refugees. Due to both instability and drought nearly 133,000 people are displaced. Another huge problem is the illegal drug trade with opium, which is used to make heroin. Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium in the world due to the climate they have that is perfect for growing opium. Overall, Afghanistan is very diverse in many aspects from ethnic groups to natural resources to terrain and thus must be studied closely in order to properly simulate the country.