The impact of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) occupation on Afghanistan politics and economy: an empirical study
Afghanistan’s unique geopolitical attributes have made it a centre of rivalry among great powers. The 1979 Soviet military intervention set in a new of war and chaos which in turn brought critical changes within the geo-political environment of Afghanistan. Literature suggests that the Soviet Unio...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi
2015
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9175/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9175/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9175/1/12x.geografia-jul15-fawad%26fuad-bi-edam.pdf |
| Summary: | Afghanistan’s unique geopolitical attributes have made it a centre of rivalry among great powers. The 1979 Soviet
military intervention set in a new of war and chaos which in turn brought critical changes within the geo-political
environment of Afghanistan. Literature suggests that the Soviet Union ocupation was merely the curtailment of the
United States in the region and more so an idealogical thing. This study sought to examine empirically the veracity
of this proposition. Empirical data were collected from 88 purposively sampled Afghan respondents a number of
whom were then selected for further in-depth interviews. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 16 in terms of
descriptive statistics, and the one way ANOVA to investigate the differences of socio-demographic data (education,
profession and ethnicity) in order to gain insight into perceived differences of USSR economic investment and
politics in Afghanistan. The result showed that significant differences were observed as a result of the USSR
economic investment and politics in Afghanistan, especially with respect to socioeconomic variables such as
education level, ethnicity and professions. Interestingly, 72.7 per cent of respondents perceived USSR occupation as
having been favourable to Afghans’ incomes while the same percentage disagreed that the USSR presence had
helped reducing insurgence and terrorism. In conclusion, the USSR occupation of Afghanistan was perceived as
having some positive impacts with respect to economic investment and politics. However, when taken together
negative impacts abound as many respondents did not agree that the occupation was favourable to the Afghan
people. |
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