translated into public policy in the USA, where the executive has encouraged
the hiring and advancement of minorities by requiring,inter alia,that all
organizations which have contracts with the federal government employ a
given percentage of people belonging to a minority group. A policy of
affirmative action has proved extremely controversial in relation to university
and graduate school admissions, and one of the most celebrated constitutional
cases of recent years (Bakke v. Regents of the University of California,1978) set
limits to the extent to which the policy could be used. Some US Supreme
Court decisions of the late 1980s and early 1990s were clearly intended to limit
the possibilities for affirmative action. At the same time, European law,
especially under the influence of theEuropean Court of Justice, was
beginning to constrain discrimination, and may lead to a more positive
approach along the lines of affirmative action.
Afghan War
After the creation of the independent states of India and Pakistan in 1947,
Afghan foreign policy was dominated by close relations with the Soviet Union
and tension with Pakistan, the latter caused by territorial disputes over Pashtun
tribal lands on Pakistan’s north-west frontier. In April 1978 the Afghan dictator
Lt-Gen. Muhammad Daud (who had been prime minister between 1953 and
1963, and had overthrown the monarchy, although he was himself a member of
the royal family, in 1973) was killed in a militarycoup d’e ́tat. The communist
People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan took power, but, paradoxically,
relations with the Soviet Union became strained as the revolutionary regime
became increasingly torn by factional disputes and its inability to suppress the
rebellion in the provinces led by the MuslimMujahidinguerrillaforces. In
December 1979, with the support of Soviet armed forces, the Afghan
president, Hafizullah Amin, was killed in a further coup d’e ́tat, and replaced
by Babrak Karmal.
During the 1980s the civil war between the Afghan army (heavily supported
by the Soviet army) and theMujahidinrebels (supported by Pakistan, over
whose border they could take refuge, and covertly but massively by the USA,
who supplied arms) escalated. The Soviet Union, technically ‘invited’ to assist
the Afghan army by Karmal, quickly became embroiled in what has frequently
been described as its equivalent to the USA’sVietnam War. As in Vietnam the
invadingsuperpowerwas able to control the cities, but lost control of most of
the countryside, and especially of the mountainous regions. The tactics applied
were very similar, involving search and destroy missions and the emplacement
of heavily defended outposts from which the Soviet troops could only venture
at great risk.
Afghan War