Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Irish Parallels
I’m finally getting round to finishing a book I blogged about a while back, Talking to Terrorists. In the conclusion, I keep getting struck with a sense of deja vu. No, Afghanistan is not Northern Ireland, nor are the Taliban the IRA. But there’s definitely something to be learned here:
“It was this absence of a long-term strategy which was to be one of the key contributory factors to the sharp increase in violence from 1969 to 1975-6. The rapid oscillation of policy in these years proved particularly damaging: from an ‘ostrich-like’ policy of neglect as the province spiralled towards collapse, to full-blown intervention and ‘Direct Rule’, to negotiations with the IRA in 1972, to an abortive attempt at power-sharing with moderate parties in 1973-4, only to return to more exploratory talks with terrorists in 1975. What characterised this era was the inability of the state to recognise how its own behaviour could exacerbate the situation. The lack of a consistent approach or over-arching vision — not to mention periodic flirtations with the possibility of a complete withdrawal from Northern Ireland — heightened suspicion of British intentions and undermined those moderate voices who were the most likely partners for peace (including the Irish government). […]
“From the mid-1970s, as violence spiralled out of control, the British government — with some reluctance — came to the decision that it needed to establish a ‘long haul’ commitment to Northern Ireland, in order to end the instability upon which the terrorist campaigns (both loyalist and republican), had thrived. By focusing their energies on ‘normalising’ the security situation and prioritising economic regeneration over constitutional experiments, the British effectively abandoned the hope that they might reach a peaceful settlement in the near future. Yet in taking this new path, they also wrested the initiative away from those violent groups that were prepared to use spectacular attacks to influence political events at important junctures. It was this change of tactics that forced the IRA to adopt its own ‘long war’ strategy — effectively an admission of weakness on the part of the republicans and a marked departure from the ‘one last push’ philosophy which had prevailed in their ranks until that point.” (p.243)
Jere van Dyk’s ‘Captive’
I’m looking forward to this book, just reviewed (below) by Publisher’s Weekly. Quite apart from the whole survival-memoir thing, Jere knows a lot about the Haqqanis (having spent time with them during the 1980s).
“Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban” (Jere Van Dyk)
Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban Jere Van Dyk. Times, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8827-4
An American journalist exploring the war zone on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border reports unwanted lessons in its perils in this harrowing memoir. Having traveled with the “freedom fighters” in the ’80s, Van Dyk thought he had the connections and knowledge to navigate the tribal lands between Pakistan and Afghanistan, but he was captured by a fractious band of Taliban fighters in 2008. Van Dyk (In Afghanistan: An American Odyssey) and his Afghan guides spent 44 days in a dark cell. Well-fed but terrified, he felt a nightmare of helplessness and disorientation. Dependent on a jailer who mixed solicitude with jocular death threats and a ruthless Taliban commander who could free or kill him on a whim, the author performed Muslim prayers in an attempt to appease his captors; wary of murky conspiracies involving his cellmates, he “was afraid of everybody, including the children.” Van Dyk’s claustrophobic narrative jettisons journalistic detachment and views his ordeal through the distorting emotions of fear, shame, and self-pity. But in telling his story this way, he brings us viscerally into the mental universe of the Taliban, where paranoia and fanaticism reign, and survival requires currying favor with powerful men. The result is a gripping tale of endurance and a vivid evocation of Afghanistan’s grim realities. 1 map. (June 22)
‘Talking to Terrorists’
“The reality was that [Afghanistan] was viewed as an unwanted headache and one which seemed increasingly impossible to solve. This much is made clear from official government documents from the period, which reflect the sense of defeatism and intellectual exhaustion that permeated the highest echelons of the British state. [...] Governments had cast around for a ‘silver bullet’ to solve the crisis, oscillating between markedly divergent positions. [...] thinking on [Afghanistan] now appeared more rudderless than ever.
[...] a policy vacuum allowed the notion of ‘talking to terrorists’ to once more re-enter British calculations.”
I’ve doctored the above passage a little, but it’s certainly an interesting parallel for the present day discussion. The passage is, in fact, discussing post-1975 Northern Ireland and the British government’s return to a policy of clandestine discussions through intermediaries with figures from within the Provisional IRA.
The book does caution against drawing parallels between different circumstances — everything is local, after all — but the fact that even a brief read in the book will remind you of what is happening with international policy towards the Taliban at the moment is an indicator that there are at least lessons to be learnt here: ending political stalemate in the greater Kandahar area at the moment should be the single priority of any efforts to find ‘a solution’, but doing so from a point of strategic bankruptcy will inevitably be to the detriment of everyone’s long-term future.
As such, the book “Talking to Terrorists: Making Peace in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country (Crises in World Politics)” (John Bew, Martyn Frampton, Inigo Gurruchaga) is an absolute must-read for policy-makers who see a future (or an end-game) in the possibility of some sort of negotiated settlement with the Taliban.
Presenting Mullah Zaeef
Felix and I are busy putting together presentations for the UK and USA at the moment. In case any of you are in either of those countries, please see the list of presentations below. I’ll try to keep it updated, but in any case the most up-to-date list will always be on the book’s website itself — here.
UNITED KINGDOM
January 21st, 2010 — Talk — School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
10 Thornhaugh Street, London, WC1H 0XG — 5.30-7pm.
http://www.soas.ac.uk/events/event55661.html
February 1st, 2010 — Talk — International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)
13–15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London WC2R 3DX — 12.30-1.30pm.
February 3rd, 2010 — Talk — London School of Economics (LSE)
Room U8, Tower 1, Clement’s Inn, London WC2A 2AD — 12.30-2.00pm.
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/mapsAndDirections/findingYourWayAroundLSE.aspx
February 5th, 2010 — Talk — Chatham House
10 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LE — 1.30-2.30pm.
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/
February 9th, 2010 — Book Launch — Frontline Club
13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ — 7-9pm
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
February 18th, 2010 — Discussion Panel – “Talking with the Taliban” — New York University (NYU)
Manhattan, New York, NY 10011 — 6.30-8.30pm
http://journalism.nyu.edu/events/index.html?ev=20100218-taliban
February 26th, 2010 — Talk — Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC 20036 — 2.30-3.30pm
March 2nd, 2010 — Talk — Middle East Institute (MEI)
1761 N Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20036-2882 — 12-1pm
March 11th, 2010 — Talk — Carr Center, Harvard University
John F. Kennedy School of Government, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge MA 02138 — 4-6pm
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/index.php
March 11th, 2010 — Talk & Signing — The COOP Bookstore, Harvard
1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138 — 7-8.30pm
5 Books Everyone Should Read About Afghanistan
“An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan” (Jason Elliot)
An Unexpected Light was the book that made me want to come to Afghanistan in the first place. I read it while I was still in secondary school and knew that this was a place I wanted to end up someday. A detailed account of Elliot’s travels in Afghanistan during the 1990s, the book offers an indispensable introduction to cultural and historical principles in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace” (Chris Johnson, Jolyon Leslie)
One of the first books I read when I first came to Afghanistan, this explores social environment and cultural identity, especially as it relates to the NGO and assistance community. It doesn’t take you all the way up to the present day, but it’s an excellent summary (read: indictment) of the post-2001 period.
None of the first three books go into much detail on the specifics of Afghan history, but Dorronsoro is the best primer on the past 30 years. Many books are written without the benefit of significant ‘field’ exposure to the Afghanistan that lies outside Kabul, embassies and MRAPs, but Dorronsoro (thankfully) does not fall into this category.
“My Life With the Taliban” (Abdul Salam Zaeef)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my own addition to the pile (full disclosure: I was one of the editors of this book). At a time when much of the world’s attention falls on Afghanistan — for good or for ill — there are few books that convey a real and unfiltered sense of the Taliban movement and their roots in the villages of southern Afghanistan. This book does that. And the fact that I spent close to four years working to get this book translated, edited and published should tell you something about how important I think it is that policy-makers read this book.