Afghan history
Afghan history
- August 18, 2010
- Ph.D. alumnus and social sciences lecturer Bojan Petrovic discusses Afghanistan’s political evolution in new book
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In his new book, social sciences lecturer Bojan Petrovic explores the historical state-building
process of Afghanistan. Through media and secondary sources, he tells the story of
Afghanistan’s political evolution, beginning with its status as a neutral, “buffer”
state between the Tsarist Russia and the British Empire in the nineteenth century.
During the Cold War, the country also served as a neutral zone between Soviet and
U.S. forces. In Afghanistan: The Political History of a Buffer State, he explains how the late stages of the Cold War fragmented the Afghan state structures,
creating great instability that has been carried over into its current post-Taliban
status. He argues that in order to bring stability back to the region, Afghanistan
must be restored to its original neutral origins.
Petrovic is a social sciences lecturer at UCI who teaches undergraduate courses and Global Connect high school lessons on the Middle East. He received his Ph.D. in political science at UCI.
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