This updated book (2nd edition published in April 2020) investigates the nature and origin of the highly destructive conflict in Afghanistan, involving both civil and international war, which has been an ongoing feature of the country since the Soviet invasion of 1979. It examines the anti-Soviet struggle of the 1980s, the vicious civil war and emergence of the Taliban in the 1990s, as well as the 2001 US-led invasion to remove al-Qaeda and the Taliban...