This book presents the first comprehensive study of Mohammad Zahir Shah’s forty-year reign, uncovering how conservative governance sustained the longest period of political stability in modern Afghan history. Challenging dominant narratives that portray Afghanistan as inherently unstable, it shows how Zahir Shah’s pragmatic and traditionalist approach shielded the country from internal rebellion and foreign intervention amid the global crises of the Second World War and the Cold War until 1973. Drawing on a wide range of archival and scholarly sources in English, Persian, and Pashto, this volume offers a fresh and in-depth analysis of the last Afghan monarchy and the enduring lessons it offers for governance in Afghanistan.

S. Yaqub Ibrahimi is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His research examines the intersections of global politics, international security, and political violence, with a particular emphasis on the Islamic world and Afghanistan.