Afghanistan: The Great Game – A Personal View by Rory Stewart

Episode one

Stewart recounts British interventions in 19th-century Afghanistan, driven by fears of Russian expansion toward British India. This period of mutual suspicion became known as the Great Game. He describes explorer and spy Alexander Burnes, whose translated book alerted Russia to perceived British expansion northward. The episode covers the decision-making behind the first British invasion and the three Anglo-Afghan wars.

Episode two

Stewart covers Soviet and United States involvement in Afghanistan. Relative peace lasted from 1928 until 1978, and the country was on the hippie trail in the 1960s and 1970s, but the Cold War intensified, with Afghanistan surrounded by American allies Iran and Pakistan. Soviet aid flowed to northern Afghanistan and American aid to the south. In Kabul, Islamists and Communists competed for power; after the Communists took control in 1978, they requested Soviet military assistance.

Afghan leader Hafizullah Amin visited Moscow in 1979, and 80,000 Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. The United States, seeking revenge for Soviet aid to Communists in the Vietnam War, covertly supplied modern weaponry through General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan. Charlie Wilson and socialite Joanne Herring helped raise $9 billion passed covertly to Afghanistan. The Soviets withdrew in 1988, leading to a five-year civil war from which the Taliban emerged victorious, imposing strict Islamic law.

Afghanistan became a haven for terrorist groups, and after the attacks on the twin towers in New York, the United States and coalition allies entered Afghanistan in large numbers. Stewart notes that Afghanistan is an easy country to enter but a difficult one to leave.