Afghanistan Rising

Afghanistan Rising
Author: Faiz Ahmed
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2017-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674971949

Debunking conventional narratives of Afghanistan as a perennial war zone and the rule of law as a secular-liberal monopoly, Faiz Ahmed presents a vibrant account of the first Muslim-majority country to gain independence, codify its own laws, and ratify a constitution after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Afghanistan Rising illustrates how turn-of-the-twentieth-century Kabul--far from being a landlocked wilderness or remote frontier--became a magnet for itinerant scholars and statesmen shuttling between Ottoman and British imperial domains. Tracing the country's longstanding but often ignored scholarly and educational ties to Baghdad, Damascus, and Istanbul as well as greater Delhi and Lahore, Ahmed explains how the court of Kabul attracted thinkers eager to craft a modern state within the interpretive traditions of Islamic law and ethics, or shariʿa, and international norms of legality. From Turkish lawyers and Arab officers to Pashtun clerics and Indian bureaucrats, this rich narrative focuses on encounters between divergent streams of modern Muslim thought and politics, beginning with the Sublime Porte's first mission to Afghanistan in 1877 and concluding with the collapse of Ottoman rule after World War I. By unearthing a lost history behind Afghanistan's founding national charter, Ahmed shows how debates today on Islam, governance, and the rule of law have deep roots in a beleaguered land. Based on archival research in six countries and as many languages, Afghanistan Rising rediscovers a time when Kabul stood proudly as a center of constitutional politics, Muslim cosmopolitanism, and contested visions of reform in the greater Islamicate world.

The Afghanistan Papers

The Afghanistan Papers
Author: Craig Whitlock
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2022-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1982159014

A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 ​The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America’s longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban’s recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public’s understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains “fast-paced and vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government’s strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn’t know the name of his Afghanistan war commander—and didn’t want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had “no visibility into who the bad guys are.” His successor, Robert Gates, said: “We didn’t know jack shit about al-Qaeda.” The Afghanistan Papers is a “searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials” (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan
Author: Thomas Barfield
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2012-03-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691154414

Traces the political history of Afghanistan from the sixteenth century to the present, looking at what has united the people as well as the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh
Author: Hiranmay Karlekar
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780761934011

`It is, I think, a timely and sobering reminder of the power of all kinds of fundamentalisms in the contemporary world, and that no society is proof against their ravages, even those which have prided themselves on their secularism, tolerance and pluralism. Bangladesh is a country haunted by divisions - not only the Partition of India, but also that of the War of Liberation, and the even more fateful split, between Muslim and Bengali, which is the more menacing because it exists within individuals, within the people themselves. Whether the wholeness of a specifically Bengali version of islam can be restored is the question which this book poses′ - Jeremy Seabrook, The Guardian `This book should ring a warning bell for policymakers in the South Block. If you do not agree, read Karlekar′s chilling tale of the death of Mjuibur′s dream - and that of many others who naively believed in it′ - Kanchan Gupta, India Today `The book unravels how the hate matrix has found a place in a culturally vibrant society that just two decades back asked for freedom from the shackles of an oppressive regime′ - Anju Kumar, The Hindu `Dubbed a hotbed of terrorism across the world, Bangladesh is under the spotlight. Hiranmay Karlekar′s timely book tackles the issue with depth and insight... A must read for strategic thinkers and those involved in watching India′s neighbourhood′ - Tehelka `The author argues that the headquarters of Islamic terrorism is shifting from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, which he describes as a soft state with an ineffective government and a weak police force′ - The Pioneer `Karlekar has a long experience of reporting on Bangladesh. His book resonates with this experience and with a wealth of details, and will help fill the vacuum of information on Bangladesh and it′s crisis of fundamentalism′ - The India Express Bangladesh focuses on the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh. Hiranmay Karlekar analyzes, in detail, the historical, social, cultural and political circumstances that have led to this, and discusses the chances of the situation being altered. From a wealth of reliable sources he discusses the circumstances which account for this rise in fundamentalism and he demonstrates the forces that function within the ruling coalition in Bangladesh allowing this rise unchecked. Hiranmay Karlekar is Consultant Editor of The Pioneer and a member of the Press Council of India. During his career, he has been Editor of The Hindustan Times, Deputy Editor of The Indian Express, and Assistant Editor of The Statesman and the erstwhile Hindusthan Standard published from Kolkata by the Anandabazar Patrika group.

The American War in Afghanistan

The American War in Afghanistan
Author: Carter Malkasian
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 601
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197550797

A New York Times Notable Book Winner of 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize The first authoritative history of American's longest war by one of the world's leading scholar-practitioners. The American war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is now the longest armed conflict in the nation's history. It is currently winding down, and American troops are likely to leave soon but only after a stay of nearly two decades. In The American War in Afghanistan, Carter Malkasian provides the first comprehensive history of the entire conflict. Malkasian is both a leading academic authority on the subject and an experienced practitioner, having spent nearly two years working in the Afghan countryside and going on to serve as the senior advisor to General Joseph Dunford, the US military commander in Afghanistan and later the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Drawing from a deep well of local knowledge, understanding of Pashto, and review of primary source documents, Malkasian moves through the war's multiple phases: the 2001 invasion and after; the light American footprint during the 2003 Iraq invasion; the resurgence of the Taliban in 2006, the Obama-era surge, and the various resets in strategy and force allocations that occurred from 2011 onward, culminating in the 2018-2020 peace talks. Malkasian lived through much of it, and draws from his own experiences to provide a unique vantage point on the war. Today, the Taliban is the most powerful faction, and sees victory as probable. The ultimate outcome after America leaves is inherently unpredictable given the multitude of actors there, but one thing is sure: the war did not go as America had hoped. Although the al-Qa'eda leader Osama bin Laden was killed and no major attack on the American homeland was carried out after 2001, the United States was unable to end the violence or hand off the war to the Afghan authorities, which could not survive without US military backing. The American War in Afghanistan explains why the war had such a disappointing outcome. Wise and all-encompassing, The American War in Afghanistan provides a truly vivid portrait of the conflict in all of its phases that will remain the authoritative account for years to come.

The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan

The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan
Author: Robert D. Crews
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 443
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674030028

[This book] explores ... how has a seemingly anachronistic band of religious zealots managed to retain a tenacious foothold in the struggle for Afghanistan's future ... [It] investigates ... questions relating to the character of the Taliban, its evolution over time, and its capacity to affect the future of the region.--Dust jacket.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan
Author: Mohammad Yousaf
Publisher: Leo Cooper Books
Total Pages: 243
Release: 1992
Genre: Afghanistan
ISBN: 9780850528602

After recent events and the massive surge of interest in Afghanistan, The Bear Trap is being re-published for the first time in paperback after the last few copies of the hardback were snapped up recently by US Military Intelligence. This is the story of the defeat of Soviet Russia's forces by a guerrilla force known as the Mujahideen, heavily backed by Pakistan and the USA. The Mujahideen paved the way for the Taliban regime, to exist having all but defeated the Russian Army in the late 80's. The author, Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, was head of the Afghan Bureau of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence and as such was effectively the Mujahideens commander-in-chief. He controlled the flow of thousands of tons of arms across Pakistan and into its occupied neighbour, arms that were bought with CIA and Saudi Arabian funds from the USA. One of the Mujahideens close allies was none other than Osama Bin Laden. This compelling book was put together with great skill the by military historian, Mark Adkin in conjunction with Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and is essential reading for anyone interested in the truth behind the Afghanistan War which led to the conditions that exist there today.It describes in detail the terrain over which the war was fought, the training that was needed and how the Mujahideen carried out ambushes, assassinations, raids and rocket attacks deep into Afghanistan territory.

Come Back to Afghanistan

Come Back to Afghanistan
Author: Said Hyder Akbar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2008-12-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1596919973

In what began as two episodes of NPR's This American Life, Akbar recounts his pilgrimage to his home country with precocious wisdom and insight, taking readers from palaces to prisons and from Kabul to the borderlands in a revealing portrait of a country in the midst of a historic transition. A Top 10 ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2005 "Honest and precociously articulate, Akbar, now 20, filters complex Afghan traditions and history through a pop-culture lens."-Entertainment Weekly "There's no shortage of realistic detail. This is a book that leaves dust in your hair and blows sand into your teeth."-San Francisco Chronicle "Raw, honest and unnerving, the book is a grim reminder of Afghanistan's ongoing political struggles."-USA Today Said Hyder Akbar is currently a junior at Yale University in New Haven, CT. He is also codirector and founder of his own nongovernmental organization, Wadan Afghanistan, which has rebuilt schools and constructed pipe systems in rural Kunar province. Susan Burton is a contributing editor of This American Life and a former editor at Harper's. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Also available: HC ISBN 1-58234-520-1 ISBN-13 978-1-58234-520-8 $24.95

Afghanistan

Afghanistan
Author: Jonathan L. Lee
Publisher: Reaktion Books
Total Pages: 797
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1789140196

A colossal history of Afghanistan from its earliest organization into a coherent state up to its turbulent present. Located at the intersection of Asia and the Middle East, Afghanistan has been strategically important for thousands of years. Its ancient routes and strategic position between India, Inner Asia, China, Persia, and beyond has meant the region has been subject to frequent invasions, both peaceful and military. As a result, modern Afghanistan is a culturally and ethnically diverse country, but one divided by conflict, political instability, and by mass displacements of its people. In this magisterial illustrated history, Jonathan L. Lee tells the story of how a small tribal confederacy in a politically and culturally significant but volatile region became a modern nation-state. Drawing on more than forty years of study, Lee places the current conflict in Afghanistan in its historical context and challenges many of the West’s preconceived ideas about the country. Focusing particularly on the powerful Durrani monarchy, which united the country in 1747 and ruled for nearly two and a half centuries, Lee chronicles the origins of the dynasty as clients of Safavid Persia and Mughal India: the reign of each ruler and their efforts to balance tribal, ethnic, regional, and religious factions; the struggle for social and constitutional reform; and the rise of Islamic and Communist factions. Along the way, he offers new cultural and political insights from Persian histories, the memoirs of Afghan government officials, British government and India Office archives, and recently released CIA reports and Wikileaks documents. He also sheds new light on the country’s foreign relations, its internal power struggles, and the impact of foreign military interventions such as the “War on Terror.”

NATO in Afghanistan

NATO in Afghanistan
Author: Sten Rynning
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2012-09-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0804784949

The war in Afghanistan has run for more than a decade, and NATO has become increasingly central to it. In this book, Sten Rynning examines NATO's role in the campaign and the difficult diplomacy involved in fighting a war by alliance. He explores the history of the war and its changing momentum, and explains how NATO at first faltered but then improved its operations to become a critical enabler for the U.S. surge of 2009. However, he also uncovers a serious and enduring problem for NATO in the shape of a disconnect between high liberal hopes for the new Afghanistan and a lack of realism about the military campaign prosecuted to bring it about. He concludes that, while NATO has made it to the point in Afghanistan where the war no longer has the potential to break it, the alliance is, at the same time, losing its own struggle to define itself as a vigorous and relevant entity on the world stage. To move forward, he argues, NATO allies must recover their common purpose as a Western alliance, and he outlines options for change.