Conflict in the Third World in the 1970s and 1980s.

Within this module I focussed at the impact of the Iranian revolution (on both USSR and USA), the conflict in Angola (especially the part played by Cuba) and also on the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

Impact of the Iranian Revolution. The impact of the Iranian revolution was not simply a Cold War issue, it had wider impacts in the Middle East (notably in the Lebanon) and also with the Iran-Iraq War. I believe however that the most noteworthy issue was the relationship (or lack of it) between Iran and America. The instability in the region was felt by both Russia and America, as well as troubled more moderate Arab Gulf states.

Angola is a highly interesting conflict to study, it has colonial links, also with players such as South Africa heavily involved, but I believe most noteworthy was the major involvement of Cuba, and with no agreement from Russia! There was a very interesing documentary on TV covering the conflict in Angola which was worth watching.

For me Afghanistan is one of the most interesting conflicts to look at. Clearly the Politburo considered long and hard before going in December 1979 ‘at the request of the Afghan Government’, but they then executed President Amin almost immediately on arriving in Kabul!! The way that the West (USA) backed the Afghan resistance (in the form of the Mujahedin) has had long term consequences; firstly in the way that an insurgent campaign can be mounted, lessons from Afghanistan have been exported to the Balkans, Chechnya, Iraq and back to Afghanistan again. It is worth noting that some of the ‘Taliban’ insurgents being fought by US forces today will have been trained by US Special Forces in insurgent warfare in the 1980s!! It is remarkable to see that USA support for the Mujahedin came in through Pakistan (where there were training camps), and now USA is putting pressure on Pakistan to improve its control over the boarder with Afghanistan.

What I particularly liked about this was the availability of translated documents from the Politburo as well as papers written by, or in conjunction with, USSR commanders with experience of the campaign. It is worthy of study, Afghanistan has been in a state of almost continual armed conflict since 1979, the current insurgency in Afghanistan has some linkage with 1979. If civil war/insurgency was an Olympic sport would Afghanistan be repeat gold medal winners?