Kingdom of Afghanistan:

• Capital: Kabul
• Form of Government: Absolute Monarchy
• Head of Government and State: King Mohammed Zahir Shah
• Official Languages: Dari; Pashto
• Official Religion: Islam
• Monetary Unit: Afghani
• GDP: $70,000,000,000

Demographics

• Population: 36,000,000
• Sex Distribution: Male 51%; Female 49%
• Religous Affiliation: Sunni Muslim 89% Shia Muslim 9%; Zoroastrian 1.5%; other .5%
• Major Cities: Kabul (3,200,000); Kandahar (350,000); Herat (240,000); Mazar-e Sharif (188,000); Jalabad (101,000)

Military

• Total Active Duty Personnel: 68,000 (74% Army; 26% Air Force)
• Military Expenditure of GNP: 1.1%

Background: Mohammad Zahir Shah ruled with assistance of his uncle as regent until 1946. Afghanistan has since emerged as a peaceful and stable nation in Central Asia. Economic growth has been slow but steady and the Kingdom shares good relations with it neighbors in particularly Iran. The experiment with democracy in the 1960's failed when radicalist parties on both the left and right attempted to seize power of the government. By 1975 the liberal constitution had been replaced with a more conservative one vesting absolute power in the monarchy.

Current issues in Afghanistan consist of the Opium Trade, Afghanistan is currently one of the worlds largest suppliers of Opium and the nations main cash crop. There have been expressed concerns of the age of King Mohammad Zahir Shah, and the drought currently plaguing the nation, and what the future holds for the nation.