Antonio Giustozzi is a writer and re- searcher specialising in Central Asian affairs and an acknowledged world authority on the Taliban. Artemy Kalinovsky is Assistant Professor of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011).

'A wholly original look at how great powers try to mould their client states in their own image -- and so often fail. A must read for every serious student of how international relations really work.'

Antonio Giustozzi is a writer and re- searcher specialising in Central Asian affairs and an acknowledged world authority on the Taliban. Artemy Kalinovsky is Assistant Professor of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011).

'A wholly original look at how great powers try to mould their client states in their own image -- and so often fail. A must read for every serious student of how international relations really work.'

Antonio Giustozzi is a writer and re- searcher specialising in Central Asian affairs and an acknowledged world authority on the Taliban. Artemy Kalinovsky is Assistant Professor of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author of A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2011).

'A wholly original look at how great powers try to mould their client states in their own image -- and so often fail. A must read for every serious student of how international relations really work.'