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Afghanistan has historically fulfilled the role of an artificial "buffer state". In recent years, and particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has become the geopolitical playground of various regional interests - the Saudis, the Russians, the Pakistanis and the Americans. Resource rich and strategically important, Afghanistan's unstable and problematic history has been further complicated in recent years by the emergence of the mysterious Taliban - one of the most conservative and least understood Islamic movements in the world. This book provides an account of the background to the ongoing conflict in the area, and a profile of the Taliban movement itself - its origins and beliefs, its religious and political ethos, the character of its particular brand of so-called Islamic fundamentalism and the nature of its international links.