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Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part 1 Review and Theory -- 1. Buffer States: A Geographer's Perspective -- 2. Buffer States: The Issue of Sovereignty -- 3. Southern Africa: Buffer States Without a Conventional Buffer System -- 4. Buffer Systems of Middle America -- Part 2 Region and Country Case Studies -- 5. Eastern Europe: The Buffer Effect of a Cordon Sanitaire -- 6. The Albanian Lands: Continuity and Change in a Buffer Region -- 7. The Geo-Political Demise of Lebanon: Consequences of a Political and Military Buffer -- 8. Asia's Pivotal Buffer States -- 9. The History of Afghanistan As A Buffer State -- 10. Korea, A Buffer State -- 11. Uruguay: The Quintessential Buffer State -- 12. Buffer States: Outlining and Expanding Existing Theory -- About the Contributors -- Index.

Intro -- BUFFER STATES POWER POLICIES, FOREIGN POLICIES AND CONCEPTS -- BUFFER STATES POWER POLICIES, FOREIGN POLICIES AND CONCEPTS -- IN MEMORY OF MY FATHER -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- Chapter One THE BUFFER CONCEPT -- Chapter Two THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND ETHNO-CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BUFFER STATES -- Chapter Three THE GEOPOLITICAL LOCATION OF BUFFER STATES. GEORGIA - A BUFFER? -- Chapter Four THE POWER AND THE WEAKNESS OF BUFFER STATES -- Chapter Five POWER POLITICS AND BUFFER STATES -- Chapter Six THE FOREIGN POLICIES OF BUFFER STATES -- Chapter Seven THE BUFFER SYSTEM -- CONCLUSION -- ANNEX -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX -- Blank Page.

AFGHANISTAN IS LAND-LOCKED. IT HAS POLITICALLY ACTED AS A BUFFER ZONE BETWEEN RUSSIA IN THE NORTH AND THE CONTIGUOUS POWERS OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, IRAN AND THE PERSIAN GULF. THIS PAPER EXAMINES THE BACKGROUND TO THE NATURE OF AFGHANISTAN AS A LAND-LOCKED STATE AND ITS ROLE AS A BUFFER IN THE SO-CALLED "GREAT GAME" OF INTERNATIONAL GEOPOLITICS. THE HYPOTHESIS UNDER REVIEW IS THAT AFGHANISTAN REPRESENTS A MOUNTAIN FORTRESS, VIRTUALLY A RESIDUE OF TRIBAL TERRITORIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL FASTNESSES, WHICH THE RUSSIANS, PERSIANS AND BRITISH IN INDIA WERE NEVER ABLE TO CONTROL.

Afghanistan's fourteen-year-long civil war erupted in 1978 and ended in the disintegration of a state that was first hyperarmed by the superpowers and then abandoned by them. This book analyzes the part played by international politics in this debacle, discussing how changing patterns of strategic conflict and cooperation have affected international negotiations over Afghanistan from the period of the civil war to the present