MILAN HAUNER was born in Germany during World War II and educated in Prague, France and England, where he studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and St Antony's, Oxford. He has published eight books and more than one hundred scholarly articles. Among his books are India in Axis Strategy (1981) and What is Asia to us? (1990). He is currently preparing a critical edition of President Edvard Benes' war memoirs 1939-45.

• Introduction -- The Human Factor -- The Collision of Evolutionary Process and Islamic Ideology in Greater Central Asia -- The Mujahedin and the Preservation of Afghan Culture -- The Sovietization of Afghanistan -- The Geopolitical Infrastructure -- Central Asia and the Soviet “Midlands”: Regional Position and Economic Integration -- Afghanistan Resources and Soviet Policy in Central and South Asia -- Afghanistan and the Transport Infrastructures of Turkestan -- The Soviet Geostrategic Dilemma -- Conclusion -- Maps