Author: Gregory Fremont-Barnes File Type: pdf The Soviet invasion of its neighbour Afghanistan in December 1979 sparked a bloody nine-year conflict in that country until Soviet forces withdrew in 198889, dooming the communist Afghanistan government to defeat at the hands of the Mujahideen, the Afghan popular resistance backed by the USA and other powers. The Soviet invasion had enormous implications on the global stage it prompted the US Senate to refuse to ratify the hard-won SALT II arms-limitation treaty, and the USA and 64 other countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. For Afghanistan, the invasion served to prolong the interminable civil war that pitted central government against the regions and faction against faction. The country remains locked in conflict over 30 years later, with no end in sight. Featuring specially drawn mapping and drawing upon a wide range of sources, this succinct account explains the origins, history and consequences of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, thereby shedding new light on the more recent history and prospects of that troubled country.

Author: Roger Lewin File Type: pdf Put together one of the worlds best science writers with one of the universes most fascinating subjects and you are bound to produce a wonderful book. . . . The subject of complexity is vital and controversial. This book is important and beautifully done.--Stephen Jay Gould YComplexity is that curious mix of complication and organization that we find throughout the natural and human worlds the workings of a cell, the structure of the brain, the behavior of the stock market, the shifts of political power. . . . It is time science . . . thinks about meaning as well as counting information. . . . This is the core of the complexity manifesto. Read it, think about it . . . but dont ignore it.--Ian Stewart, Nature This second edition has been brought up to date with an essay entitled On the Edge in the Business World and an interview with John Holland, author of Emergence From Chaos to Order. Put together one of the worlds best science writers with one of the universes most fascinating subjects and you are bound to produce a wonderful book. . . . The subject of complexity is vital and controversial. This book is important and beautifully done.Stephen Jay Gould [Complexity] is that curious mix of complication and organization that we find throughout the natural and human worlds the workings of a cell, the structure of the brain, the behavior of the stock market, the shifts of political power. . . . It is time science . . . thinks about meaning as well as counting information. . . . This is the core of the complexity manifesto. Read it, think about it . . . but dont ignore it.Ian Stewart, Nature This second edition has been brought up to date with an essay entitled On the Edge in the Business World and an interview with John Holland, author of Emergence From Chaos to Order. **From Publishers Weekly Lewin presents an authoritative introduction to the scientific field of complexity theory. 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Complexity has its roots in the work of many scientists from several disciplines and has only very recently, with the establishment of an institute in Santa Fe dedicated to its study, begun to come into focus as an analytical theory. Lewins book is written as a kind of scientific travelog he goes from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico to rural southwest England to the rain forests of Costa Rica in order to interview some of the key figures of complexity, whose independent works have contributed to the development of what could become a unified theory of the life sciences. Whether studying cellular automata or the evolution of life on earth, these scientists have found that order naturally seems to emerge within dynamic systems, often from the very brink of chaos. Lewins far-ranging treatment of the subject is quite different from that of Michael Waldrops Complexity The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos ( LJ 11192), which remains pretty much centered at the Sante Fe Institute. Of the two, Lewin offers the most vivid and engaging discussion of complexity for general readers. - Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.