The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan

Experts on the three neighboring states discuss the interaction of central government and the forces of nationalism, ethnicity, tribalism and religion. Although all three are Islamic countries, they have such different traditions and conditions that comparisons are of limited usefulness, but these studies do push out the frontiers of knowledge and might well be helpful in building a sounder basis for decisions on policy in the area. Perhaps we should note, however, that in the case of Iran in the past decade the American academic experts were not in agreement and many of them proved to be as wrong as the politicians and diplomats.