ABSTRACT
Like many of the other states of Africa and Asia, Afghanistan's borders are more the result of colonial interaction than ethnic cohesion. The natural boundaries which often separate the state's internal groups do not form consistent borders which separate peoples in the region. Members of almost every ethnic group in Afghanistan have cross-border ethnic ties. For instance, the Pashtuns spillover into Pakistan, while the Tajiks and the Turkmen often have closer ethnic ties to the people of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan than to their fellow Afghans.' The Great Game between Russia and Great Britain was responsible for the country's current boundaries. One consequence of this imperial struggle is that Afghanistan remains a multi ethnic state with numerous minor groups, cultures and languages.
