PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book had its origins in a suggestion by Michael Dwyer that the Taliban phenomenon demanded more careful and detailed attention than it had received in the tumultuous days and weeks following the Taliban seizure of Kabul in September 1996. For this, and for his enthusiasm and support during the preparation of the volume, I owe him a great debt. Beyond his pivotal role, the book owes what merits it possesses largely to the energy and scholarship of the contributors, for whose efforts and patience I am deeply grateful. Beyond asking them to address particular topics, I have made no effort to impose any particular line of argument or methodology upon their contributions.

A number of people have helped shape my own thinking about Afghanistan, and in turn this book. Apart from the contributors, I have greatly profited from discussions at different times with Nasiba Akram, Anthony Arnold, Grahame Carroll, Pierre Centlivres and Micheline Centlivres-Demont, Gilles Dorronsoro, Patricia Garcia, Ravan Farhadi, Ashraf Ghani, Frederic Grare, Habib R. Hala, Connie Lenneberg, Susie Low, Sayed Askar Mousavi, Kabir Osman, Abdul Rahim, Barnett R. Rubin, Fazel Haq Saikal, Fiona Terry, Bill Van Ree, and Marvin G. Weinbaum, as well as other Afghan and non-Afghan friends, currently working in Afghanistan or Pakistan, whom I should not name, but who will know of my gratitude.

It was my good fortune to be able to begin work on the book during a period of leave granted to me by the University of New South Wales. The first part of this leave I spent as a Visiting Research Fellow in the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University, and I would like to thank the RSP Director Dr David Turton, and the staff of the RSP Documentation Centre, for their hospitality. I was also able during my leave to do work at the ACBAR Resource and Information Center (ARIC) in Peshawar, and thank the superb staff of ARIC, and especially Fahim Rahimyar, for their kind assistance during my stay. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to officials of the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance to Afghanistan, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, for their generous assistance in a number of ways.

Finally, I wish to thank Beverley Lincoln of the University of New South Wales, who prepared the map with great patience.

Canberra, January 1998 WILLIAM MALEY