Download or read book A Fragile Future written by Ahmed Rashid and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-04-07 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating up-to-date look at the roots of our financial crisis from the New York Times bestselling author Kevin Phillips Descent into Chaos is Ahmed Rashid's sweeping, brilliant exploration of the failure of the United States to secure peace and nourish democracy in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the removal of the Taliban following 9/11. Thoroughly researched and powerfully written, it has been hailed from all corners as one of the most important books on the effects of American policy in the Middle East to appear in some time. In this searching update, Rashid takes stock of events in Pakistan since the book's publication, including the 2008 elections, the end of the Musharraf era, and the further resurgence of the Taliban. Up from Chaos makes the convincing case that if peace is to come to central Asia, Pakistan remains the key.

Download or read book Securing the Future of Afghanistan written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Defence Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-04-10 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Committee's report focuses on the planned withdrawal of combat troops at the end of 2014 and the transfer of responsibility for security to the Afghan National Security Forces. It also examines the progress towards a secure and stable Afghanistan within the wider region, including Pakistan, and the plans by the UK, NATO and other allies for a smooth transition of responsibility for security to the Afghan Government and the ANSF. Securing the future of Afghanistan requires the concerted efforts of all the Afghan people; regional neighbours, in particular Pakistan; the USA; NATO and other coalition partners. In the process of establishing a peaceful and functioning Afghanistan, the Committee calls for evidence of: (i) At least the start of an Afghan-led peace settlement with the insurgency; (ii) Open and free elections; (iii) An appropriately trained and equipped ANSF with continuing financial support; (iii) A strong judicial system which protects the human rights of all Afghans; (iv) Economic development aid to continue in support of the well being and safety of all sections of society; (v) Effective measures to tackle corruption, drug production and the drug trade. The MoD needs to work with international partners and the ANSF to identify ways of meeting significant gaps in necessary capabilities such as helicopters and close air support and medical care from 2015. The Defence Committee concludes that at the end of UK operations the best the UK will be able to do is to withdraw in good order and engage with external partners to improve Afghanistan's future prospects.

Download or read book Assessment of U S Strategy and Operations in Afghanistan and the Way Ahead written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Military Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Afghanistan written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women in Afghanistan have made gains since the Taliban was ousted in 2001, but they continue to face enormous disadvantages. The status of Afghan women is amongst the worst in the world and eighty seven per cent of women experience some form of domestic abuse during their lifetime, according to the UN. Women who participate in public life also do so at significant risk to their safety. The UK Government has said it is committed to protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and women's and girl's empowerment is a departmental priority for DFID globally. But the International Development Committee inquiry found too little practical evidence of this in DFID programmes or funding. The Department should start by examining what programmes have been effective for women in Afghanistan, then draw up a plan to expand these programmes, while doing all it can to secure commitments from other donors, such as the US, the EU and the World Bank.The Committee is recommending that the UK Government reconsider the DFID's focus on creating a 'viable state', giving greater emphasis to the provision of services and alleviating poverty. The Afghan people want their country to succeed, and the UK should continue to support them with a major aid budget in the country after the troops leave

Download or read book An Absence of Faith A Tale of Afghanistan written by Craig Trebilcock and published by BookLocker.com, Inc.. This book was released on 2024-05-05 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by real-world events, AN ABSENCE OF FAITH: A Tale of Afghanistan is a novel of the collapse of Afghanistan, seen through the eyes of two protagonists, Daniyal, an Afghan army private, and Colonel Trevanathan, a U.S. Army officer, assigned the Sisyphean task of ending Afghan government corruption. Daniyal is a university student in Kabul, who is forced into the Afghan army by a military press gang. He is starved, beaten, and watches his friends die from incompetent leadership. When he is made the Headquarters clerk for the heartless Command Sergeant Major Mahmood, he learns his army’s leaders are getting rich from selling their soldiers’ food and medical supplies. Daniyal is torn between the privilege and safety his headquarters’ job provides versus his complicity in the widespread corruption. The second parallel story is the arrival in Kabul of U.S. Army Colonel William Trevanathan, who is to be the Counter Corruption Director for the NATO command in Afghanistan. It is November 2015. Trevanathan learns that multiple NATO countries plan to pull out of the war from their frustration with Afghan embezzlement of NATO military aid. The domino effect of departing Western allies will likely lose the war against the Taliban, as the Afghan military is incapable of fighting on its own. Trevanathan’s job is to prevent that NATO pullout by ensuring the corrupt Afghan government players are prosecuted, despite no Afghan politician or senior military commander having been charged in the past fifteen years. The challenge is great enough, before Colonel Trevanathan learns his efforts are being undermined by The U.S. Embassy. Both Daniyal and Trevanathan embark on a Kafka-esque adventure across the breadth of Afghanistan to save the Afghan people and themselves, as they fight to cling to their humanity and beliefs in a war where allies are enemies and yes almost always means no. For anyone who has ever wanted clarity why the U.S. was unable to defeat the Taliban despite spending $2 trillion, investing twenty years into building the Afghan National Army, and suffering tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, this is the book you've been waiting for.

Download or read book Counterinsurgency Reader II written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reconstructing Afghanistan written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: International Development Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-02-14 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report, produced by the International Development Committee (HCP 65-I. session 2007-08), along with oral and written evidence (HCP 65-II, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215513649) examines the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The Committee reached a number of conclusions, including: that reconstruction of the country and its economy will be a lengthy process and that Afghanistan will not meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals by 2015; that any reconstruction process needs to be Afghan-led; that the consequences for global security are significant if the international community abandons Afghanistan. The Committee also set out 50 recommendations, that include: the Committee supports the UK Government's continuing commitment to help bring peace and security to this region, and that Afghanistan needs to remain a major focus for the Department for International Development; that the presence of 7,000 British troops in this region needs the support of the British public, but that DFID needs a media and communications strategy that places greater emphaisis on the achievements in political reform, economic growth and basic services; that the international commitments by the Afghanistan Government to the rights of women are honoured; the Committee recommends the early provision of a dedicated aeroplane for the use of DFID and other Embassy staff in Afghanistan; the Committee expressed disappointment that sufficient international momentum could not be gained for the appointment of a high level joint UN, NATO, EU coordinator, or super-envoy in Afghanistan, and that ways must be found to fully resource the UN Special Representative in the region; that to stabilise security conditions, full cooperation between the NATO forces, the Afghan Government and armed forces is crucial; that further international pressure be placed on Pakistan to control more effectively the Federally Administered Tribal Areas also that controlling drug trafficking between Afghanistan and Pakistan is key to any counter-narcotics policy; that there has been insufficient attention to and funding for the agricultural and livestock sectors which could provide a range of alternatives to Opium poppy production, and that DFID should establish a programme to offer technical advice and training in agricultural extension services and develop a multifaceted rural livelihoods approach. For a report on UK Operations in Afghanistan, see (HCP 408, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780215035073). For an earlier oral and written evidence on reconstructing Afghanistan, see (HCP 772-i, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780215028112).

Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Download or read book Kabul written by Dominic Medley and published by Bradt Travel Guides. This book was released on 2003 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As usual, Bradt guides lead the way in exploring areas in the news. This new, mini guide format features: § Background information to Kabul and the surrounding area § Comprehensive advice on safety, security and health § People and culture in depth § Hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs, plus restaurants and bars § Up-to-date telephone numbers, websites and other communications information § Beyond Kabul - towns and cities within easy reach of the capital § Maps and town plans § Words, phrases and Afghan proverbs

Download or read book Afghanistan and the Coloniality of Diplomacy written by Maximilian Drephal and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-09-25 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers an institutional history of the British Legation in Kabul, which was established in response to the independence of Afghanistan in 1919. It contextualises this diplomatic mission in the wider remit of Anglo-Afghan relations and diplomacy from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, examining the networks of family and profession that established the institution’s colonial foundations and its connections across South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The study presents the British Legation as a late imperial institution, which materialised colonialism's governmental practices in the age of independence. Ultimately, it demonstrates the continuation of asymmetries forged in the Anglo-Afghan encounter and shows how these were transformed into instances of diplomatic inequality in the realm of international relations. Approaching diplomacy through the themes of performance, the body and architecture, and in the context of knowledge transfers, this work offers new perspectives on international relations through a cultural history of diplomacy.

Download or read book Professional Journal of the United States Army written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fall of Kabul written by Nayanima Basu and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-21 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journalist Nayanima Basu had a ringside view of the total collapse of the republic of Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. From 8 to 17 August 2021, based in Kabul but travelling outside and talking to Afghans across the political spectrum, she sent despatches of the Taliban sweeping through the country, with provinces falling one after another. Covering a hostile war zone, a woman all alone, she saw the fall of Kabul in real time and managed to get out on the last flight by negotiating with Taliban bosses. Basu transports us to the heart of the action with her vivid narration and precise descriptions of what was happening in Afghanistan at large and Kabul in particular. Through her astonishing account of how she did her reporting – from asking gun-toting civilians for help to find her way back to her hotel and being chided by the hotel employees to stay safe in an iron room to being the only Indian journalist to ever interview the 'Butcher of Kabul' – Basu tells the story of not just the wreckage of the country's present but also of the contentious past that lead to it.

Download or read book A Review of the 2001 Bonn Conference and Application to the Road Ahead in Afghanistan written by Mark Fields and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2011 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten years ago in Bonn, Germany, the United Nations Envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, and U.S. Envoy to the Afghan Opposition, Ambassador James Dobbins, led a diverse group of international diplomats and warriors to consensus and charted the political course for Afghanistan well into the decade. The process that led to the Bonn Agreement (Bonn 2001, or Bonn I) reflects the best of U.S. and United Nations statesmanship and was the result of the effective application of military and diplomatic power. Bonn 2001 was successful for five reasons: The U.S.-supported Northern Alliance held the clear military advantage; The U.S. interagency position was effectively synchronized; Dobbins paved the way for success at Bonn by thorough bilateral preparation and consultations with international actors-he met personally with nearly all the international participants and representatives; Brahimi and Dobbins merged their negotiating experience and artfully used multilateral negotiations to meld national interests into cohesive commitments; Bonn Conference objectives were limited and achievable and the U.S. negotiating team was empowered to exercise initiative in pursuit of those objectives. As the Bonn Conference's 10th anniversary approaches, the fundamental challenge is simply stated: how can U.S. national interests in Afghanistan be achieved with fewer resources? This paper answers that question through an analysis of the process that produced the Bonn Agreement in 2001. It offers step-by-step recommendations for U.S. policymakers on how to shape specific conditions in Afghanistan, beginning with Bonn 2011 (Bonn II), for the post-2014 period. Those recommendations include: The United States must demonstrate long-term commitment to Afghanistan in the form of a formal strategic partnership announced at Bonn; Following Bonn, the United States must set conditions for a negotiated settlement through military and diplomatic means: The United States should announce its intention to maintain a reduced military force in Afghanistan well beyond 2014; The United States should fund the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) at the present manning objective (352,000) through 2015, then reassess this requirement; The coalition should intensify efforts to kill or capture members of the insurgent Leadership; Bilateral preparation should begin with President Hamid Karzai and the issue of Afghan political reforms. Bonn I was about balancing control of central government offices. Following Bonn II, Afghans should rebalance power between the central government and provincial governments. Insurgents willing to lay down arms could play a legitimate role in local governance; Bilateral preparation should then proceed to Afghanistan's neighbors and Russia, China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. This paper offers recommendations for dealing with each country in light of Bonn I and events to date. Without U.S. commitment through the end of this decade, Afghanistan will likely fall back into the civil war it experienced in the early 1990s. As fighting spreads, India and Pakistan will back their Afghan proxies and the conflict will intensify. This situation would not only create opportunities for safe haven for extremists, but also invite a confrontation between adversarial and nuclear-armed states. The growing strength of Pakistan's own insurgency and the existential threat it could pose in the future intensifies this risk. The potential for such an outcome runs counter to U.S. and coalition interests. Bonn 2001 began a journey toward Afghanistan's stability and representative government that has demanded great sacrifice by Afghans, Americans, and other members of the coalition. That journey has come far from its humble beginning and requires American leadership and energy to remain on course.

Download or read book U S Marines in Afghanistan 2001 2009 written by and published by U.S. Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2014 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, 2001-1009: Anthology and Annotated Bibliography: presents a collection of 37 articles, interviews, and speeches describing many aspects of the Corp's participation in Operation Enduring Freedom from 2001 to 2009. This history Division publication is intended to serve as a general overview and provisional reference to inform both Marines and the general public until monographs dealing with major Marine Corps operations during the campaign can be completed. The accompanying annotated bibliography provides a detailed look at selected sources that currently exist until new scholarship and archival materials become available.

Download or read book The Favored Daughter written by Fawzia Koofi and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2012-01-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Koofi's New York Times bestseller, The Favored Daughter, is the true and inspiring story of how one Afghani woman overcame poverty and prejudice to become the first female speaker of the Afghani Parliament and a leading contender for president. The nineteenth daughter of a local village leader in rural Afghanistan, Fawzia Koofi was left to die in the sun after birth by her mother. But she survived, and perseverance in the face of extreme hardship has defined her life ever since. Despite the abuse of her family, the exploitative Russian and Taliban regimes, the murders of her father, brother, and husband, and numerous attempts on her life, she rose to become the first Afghani woman Parliament speaker. Here, she shares her amazing story, punctuated by a series of poignant letters she wrote to her two daughters before each political trip—letters describing the future and freedoms she dreamed of for them and for all the women of Afghanistan.

Download or read book British Missions around the Gulf 1575 2005 written by Hugh Arbuthnott and published by Global Oriental. This book was released on 2008-07-17 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent events have once again focused international attention on the volatile politics of the Gulf region. This new book, by three former British ambassadors – all with long service in the region – demonstrates the importance of the Gulf for Britain from the days of Elizabeth I to the present. It tells the story, through the life and works of the British diplomats and consuls and the missions in which they worked, of Britain’s involvement, first for trade and later for strategic purposes, in the four key regional states of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman. With wit and insight, the book traces the origins of today’s problems from the Ottoman and Persian empires to the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath. Those who know the region will find this a refreshing new slant on an old story, while those new to the subject will enjoy the mixture of politics and personalities ably described and analysed.