Comprehensive and unique information with professional analysis of Afghanistan, politics and history, economic, social, military, and national security systems and institutions, written by the experts at the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. This Country Study and Country Profile is an exceptional review of Afghanistan and its history. Books in the Country Studies series describe and analyze "political, economic, social, and national security systems and institutions, and examin[e] the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors. The authors seek to provide a basic understanding of the observed society, striving for a dynamic rather than a static portrayal. Particular attention is devoted to the people who make up the society, their origins, dominant beliefs and values, their common interests and the issues on which they are divided, the nature and extent of their involvement with national institutions, and their attitudes toward each other and toward their social system and political order." This is a privately authored news service and educational publication of Progressive Management.