Afghanistan has long been the focal point of East-West relations, from the 19th and early 20th centuries when its mountain ranges provided the arena where the world's greatest powers sought to expand their influence to its center role in international struggles today. Squeezed between four empires - Russia, China, India, and Persia - Afghanistan's tortured history provides an extraordinary glimpse into the patterns of world movements. This serious, yet accessible history of modern Afghanistan is of vital importance for understanding the country's current crisis and is essential reading for historians, policy makers, and all those interested in the state of the world today.