Talibanistan

Talibanistan PDF Author: Peter Bergen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199986770
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Book Description
The longest war the United States has ever fought is the ongoing war in Afghanistan. But when we speak of "Afghanistan," we really mean a conflict that straddles the border with Pakistan--and the reality of Islamic militancy on that border is enormously complicated. In Talibanistan, an unparalleled group of experts offer a nuanced understanding of this critical region. Edited by Peter Bergen, author of the bestselling books The Longest War and The Osama Bin Laden I Know, and Katherine Tiedemann, these essays examine in detail the embattled territory from Kandahar in Afghanistan to Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. They pull apart the distinctions between the Taliban and al Qaeda--and the fractures within each movement; assess the effectiveness of American and Pakistani counterinsurgency campaigns; and explore the pipeline of militants into and out of the war zone. Throughout, these scrupulously researched studies challenge convenient orthodoxies. Counterterrorism expert Brian Fishman criticizes the customary distinction between an Afghan and Pakistani Taliban as being too neat to describe their fragmented reality. Hassan Abbas paints a subtle portrait of the political and religious forces shaping the insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, uncovering poor governance, economic distress, and resentment of foreign troops in nearby Afghanistan. And Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann try to identify the real numbers of drone strikes and victims, both militants and civilians, while disputing claims for their strategic effectiveness. These and other essays provide profound new insight into this troubled region. They are required reading for anyone seeking a fresh understanding of a central strategic challenge facing the United States today.

Manhunt

Manhunt PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385676786
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
From the author of the New York Times bestselling Holy War, Inc., this is the definitive account of the decade-long manhunt for the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda expert and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen paints a multidimensional picture of the hunt for Osama bin Laden over the past decade, including the operation that killed him. Other key elements of the book will include: - A careful account of Obama's decision-making process as the raid was planned - The fascinating story of a group of women CIA analysts who never gave up assembling the tiniest clues about bin Laden's whereabouts - The untold and action-packed history of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the SEALs - An analysis of what the death of bin Laden means for Al Qaeda and for Obama's legacy Just as Hugh Trevor-Roper's The Last Days of Hitler was the definitive account of the death of the Nazi dictator, Manhunt is the authoritative, immersive account of the death of the man who organized the largest mass murder in American history.

Hubris, Self-Interest, and America's Failed War in Afghanistan

Hubris, Self-Interest, and America's Failed War in Afghanistan PDF Author: Thomas P. Cavanna
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498506208
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 364

Book Description
This book describes the conduct of the US-led post-9/11 war in Afghanistan. Adopting a long-term perspective, it argues that even though Washington initially had an opportunity to achieve its security goals and give Afghanistan a chance to enter a new era, it compromised any possibility of success from the very moment it let bin Laden escape to Pakistan in December 2001, and found itself locked in a strategic overreach. Given the bureaucratic and rhetorical momentum triggered by the war on terror in America, the Bush Administration was bound to deploy more resources in Afghanistan sooner or later (despite its focus on Iraq). The need to satisfy unfulfilled counter-terrorism objectives made the US dependent on Afghanistan’s warlords, which compromised the country’s stability and tarnished its new political system. The extension of the US military presence made Washington lose its leverage on the Pakistan army leaders, who, aware of America’s logistical dependency on Islamabad, supported the Afghan insurgents – their historical proxies - more and more openly. The extension of the war also contributed to radicalize segments of the Afghan and Pakistani populations, destabilizing the area further. In the meantime, the need to justify the extension of its military presence influenced the US-led coalition into proclaiming its determination to democratize and reconstruct Afghanistan. While highly opportunistic, the emergence of these policies proved both self-defeating and unsustainable due to an inescapable collision between the US-led coalition’s inherent self-interest, hubris, limited knowledge, limited attention span and limited resources, and, on the other hand, Afghanistan’s inherent complexity. As the critical contradictions at the very heart of the campaign increased with the extension of the latter’s duration, scale, and cost, America’s leaders, entrapped in path-dependence, lost their strategic flexibility. Despite debates on troops/resource allocation and more sophisticated doctrines, they repeated the same structural mistakes over and over again. The strategic overreach became self-sustaining, until its costs became intolerable, leading to a drawdown which has more to do with a pervasive sense of failure than with the accomplishment of any noble purpose or strategic breakthrough.

Imagining Afghanistan

Imagining Afghanistan PDF Author: Nivi Manchanda
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108491235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
An innovative exploration of how colonial interventions in Afghanistan have been made possible through representations of the country as 'backward'.

The Longest War

The Longest War PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743278941
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 498

Book Description
At a critical moment in world history The Longest War provides the definitive account of the ongoing battle against terror. --Book Jacket.

Holy War, Inc.

Holy War, Inc. PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780743234955
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
CNN's terrorism analyst examines Osama bin Laden's global terrorist network, al-Queda, discussing its operations and mission, the planning and execution of specific terrorist acts, and future threats from militant Islamic movements.

Competition Science Vision

Competition Science Vision PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 107

Book Description
Competition Science Vision (monthly magazine) is published by Pratiyogita Darpan Group in India and is one of the best Science monthly magazines available for medical entrance examination students in India. Well-qualified professionals of Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany make contributions to this magazine and craft it with focus on providing complete and to-the-point study material for aspiring candidates. The magazine covers General Knowledge, Science and Technology news, Interviews of toppers of examinations, study material of Physics, Chemistry, Zoology and Botany with model papers, reasoning test questions, facts, quiz contest, general awareness and mental ability test in every monthly issue.

Anime's Media Mix

Anime's Media Mix PDF Author: Marc Steinberg
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 081667549X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Untangles the web of commodity, capitalism, and art that is anime

Pakistan Since Independence

Pakistan Since Independence PDF Author: Stanley B. Sprague
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476641706
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

Book Description
This concise and balanced account details Pakistan's turbulent 73-year history of civil war, military coups, political assassinations, wars with India, cooperation with the U.S. during the Afghan-Soviet war, and events following 9/11. An unpredictable nuclear nation, Pakistan has been variously described as the center of international terrorism, the world's biggest nuclear weapons proliferator, the most dangerous place in the world and, some experts predict, the most likely site of the world's first nuclear war.

The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden

The Rise and Fall of Osama Bin Laden PDF Author: Peter L. Bergen
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982170530
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
The world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the “riveting” (The New York Times) definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today. In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergan provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long war with al-Qaeda and its decedents, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on his two wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make critical strategic decisions. Yet, he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious but willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty, yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. In his final years, the lasting image we have of bin Laden is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just as another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet, despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s “comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling” (H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World) portrait of Osama bin Laden reveals for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.