Historical patterns of the past several centuries remained relevant to the nation’s situation in the mid-1980s. First, because
of Afghanistan’s strategic location geopolitically, great rival powers have tended to view the control of Afghanistan by
a major opponent as unacceptable. Sometimes the Afghans have been able to use this circumstance to their benefit, but
more often they have suffered grievously in the great power struggles. Great powers have considered Afghanistan’s internal politics more as a reflection of international rivalry than as events in themselves.