In Afghanistan's Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet Temptations
Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1981. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. xi, [1], 228 pages. Foreword by Thomas L. Hughes. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Index. Cover worn. Pencil and ink marks to text and ink comments at page 228 noted. Selig Seidenman Harrison (March 19, 1927–December 30, 2016) was a scholar and journalist, who specialized in South Asia and East Asia. He was the Director of the Asia Program and a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He was also a member of the Afghanistan Study Group. He wrote five books on Asian affairs and U.S. relations with Asia. His last book, Korean Endgame: A Strategy for Reunification and U.S. Disengagement, won the 2002 award of the Association of American Publishers for the best Professional/Scholarly Book in Government and Political Science. His outspoken, constructive criticisms of Administration policies often appeared on op-ed pages of many major newspapers, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Financial Times. In Afghanistan's shadow lies Baluchistan, a little known but strategically located area stretching across eastern Iran, western Pakistan and a strip of southern Afghanistan. For more than 1000 years, Baluch tribesmen have regarded this vast expanse of desert and mountains as their rightful homeland, resisting its annexation into surrounding empires. In recent decades they have fought four guerilla wars to win either autonomy within Pakistan and Iran or failing that, an independent Greater Baluchistan that would unite the five million Baluch under one flag. More than a year before the Russians invaded Afghanistan, Harrison warned of this possibility in one of his frequent contributions to the influential journal, Foreign Policy. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, he was one of the earliest to foresee that the Soviet Union would withdraw its forces and become a leading advocate of a two-track policy designed to promote a withdrawal through a combination of military pressure and diplomatic incentives. He was also one of the few who predicted that the Kabul Communist regime would not fall immediately after the withdrawal. Rep. Stephen Solarz, chairman of the House Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, introducing him at a hearing on February 21, 1989, one year after the withdrawal, observed that "with each passing day his reputation as a prophet is enhanced. I am sure it wasn't easy for Mr. Harrison, in the face of a phalanx of analysts, academicians, and others who were all saying the opposite, to maintain his position, but he had the intellectual fortitude and moral strength to stick by his guns, his analytical guns, and I think he deserves credit for that." "The Baloch are an Iranian people inhabiting the region of Balochistan in Iran and Pakistan as well as neighboring areas of Afghanistan and the southeast corner of the Iranian plateau in Southwest Asia. The Baloch speak Balochi, which is considered a north-western Iranian language and the Baloch are accordingly generally considered an Iranian people. They mainly inhabit mountainous terrains which have allowed them to maintain a distinct cultural identity and resist domination by neighboring rulers. The Baloch are predominantly Muslim, with most belonging to the Hanafi school of thought of Sunni Islam, but there are also a significant number of Zikri in Balochistan. Some 70 percent of the total Baloch population live in Pakistan. About 20 percent inhabit the coterminous region of southeastern Iran. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Nationalism, Insurgency, Pakistan, Khair Bux Marri, Ghaus Bux Bizenjo, Ataullah Mengal, Liberation Front, Soviet, Communism, Bhutto, Tribalism, Independence Movement
ISBN: 0870030302
[Book #82967]
Price: $100.00