Afghanistan
A rugged crossroads of empires at the heart of Asia
Afghanistan is a mountainous, landlocked nation that has stood for millennia at the crossroads of Asia, where the routes between Persia, Central Asia, and the Indian subcontinent converge. Its forbidding terrain, dominated by the Hindu Kush, has made it a graveyard of foreign armies, from Alexander's Greeks to the British, the Soviets, and a United States-led coalition. A deeply traditional society of Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks, it has endured more than four decades of near-continuous war, and since 2021 it has again been ruled by the Taliban.
The Hindu Kush range bisects the country, soaring in the northeast to Noshaq at 7,492 meters, the highest point, near the narrow Wakhan Corridor that reaches toward China. From these mountains the land falls to arid plains and deserts in the south and west, with fertile river valleys, fed by the Amu Darya, Helmand, and Kabul rivers, supporting most of the population and agriculture. The climate is harsh and continental, with frigid mountain winters and scorching summers in the lowlands, and the country is prone to drought and earthquakes.
Long a buffer between empires, Afghanistan emerged as a unified state in the eighteenth century and famously resisted British control during the Great Game. A 1978 coup and the Soviet invasion of 1979 plunged it into war, and after the Soviet withdrawal came civil conflict and the rise of the Taliban, ousted by a US-led intervention in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. Two decades of insurgency ended with the Taliban's return to power in 2021 and the collapse of the Western-backed government. The economy, battered by sanctions and isolation, leans on agriculture, including opium, and remittances, amid a deep humanitarian crisis.