ABSTRACT
The destructuring of Afghanistan which the Soviets and their surrogates have imposed on the country immensely complicates the task of finding a viable solution to the Afghanistan problem but guarantees a long period of misery and uncertainty for those who have survived the trauma of Soviet occupation. No matter what regime rules in Kabul from on, the future of Afghanistan appears bleak. While the damage inflicted upon Afghanistan will shape the broad course of Afghanistan's development, the specific character of the regime in Kabul may well be affected by attempts to procure a 'settlement' of the current impasse between the Mujahideen and the regime of Dr Najibullah. The changed pattern of ethnic composition within the internal population has enormous implications for the future distribution of power within Afghanistan, as well as for the prospects of a viable political settlement providing the degree of internal order needed to permit an effective process of post-war reconstruction to be commenced.
