Books by Ahmed Rashid
Taliban
by Ahmed Rashid
If you want to understand the Taliban, how they rose to power, and what motivates them, this is the standard work and easily the most accessible. Rashid covers the US approach to the Taliban and the Taliban’s wider role in the support for and spread of militant Islamism globally.
Descent Into Chaos
by Ahmed Rashid
In this book, published in 2009, Ahmed Rashid explores the failure of the US and its allies to suppress militant Islam in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the wake of the terror attacks of 2001. He had great contacts in the government of Pakistan and among politicians and warlords of all factions in Afghanistan. He is also well plugged in to policymaking circles in the West. If the precipitate withdrawal of the US in 2021 was a policy error of epic proportions, this book shows that it was only the latest in a long line of miscalculations and mistakes in the West’s dealing with Afghanistan since 2001.
Interviews where books by Ahmed Rashid were recommended
The best books on Afghanistan, recommended by Thomas Barfield
Anthropologist and Afghanistan expert Thomas Barfield gives a panoramic view of Afghanistan, from founding dynasties to the failed central Asian states of today. He picks the best books on Afghanistan.
The best books on The Afghanistan-Pakistan border, recommended by Gretchen Peters
The award-winning journalist and author says she laughed out loud when she read Greg Mortenson’s line that if he was killed in Pakistan, he knew it would be in a car accident and not by a terrorist
The best books on The Khyber Pass, recommended by Paddy Docherty
Historian discusses five books on one of the world’s most enigmatic and dangerous places. “The atmosphere inside the Khyber is certainly very tense. You don’t see people strutting around having a nice time”
The best books on Negotiation, recommended by Jonathan Powell
The former chief of staff to Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, tells us about his experience of negotiating in Northern Ireland, and explains why it’s important never to lose your temper except on purpose
