Descent into Chaos
By Ahmed Rashid
(Viking Adult, Hardcover, 9780670019700, 544pp.)
Publication Date: June 2008
Other Editions of This Title: Paperback (April 2009)
Categories: Asia - Pakistan, International Relations - General, United States - 21st Century
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The #1 New York Times bestselling author provides a shocking analysis of the crisis in Pakistan and the renewed radicalism threatening Afghanistan and the West.
Ahmed Rashid is "Pakistan's best and bravest reporter" (Christopher Hitchens). His unique knowledge of this vast and complex region allows him a panoramic vision and nuance that no Western writer can emulate.
His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al' Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest. While Iraq continues to attract most of American media and military might, Rashid argues that Pakistan and Afghanistan are where the conflict will finally be played out and that these failing states pose a graver threat to global security than the Middle East.
Benazir Bhutto's assassination and the crisis in Pakistan are only the beginning. Rashid assesses what her death means for the region and the future. Rashid has unparalleled access to the figures in this global drama, and provides up-to-the-minute analysis better than anyone else. Descent Into Chaos will do for Central Asia what Thomas Rick's Fiasco did for Iraq -- offer a blistering critique of the Bush administration and an impassioned call to correct our failed strategy in the region.
Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore who writes for the The Washington Post, Daily Telegraph (London), the International Herald Tribune, The New York Review of Books, BBC Online, and The Nation. His previous books include Jihad, Taliban, and The Resurgence of Cetral Asia. He appears regularly on NPR, CNN, and the BBC World Service.
Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid discusses the challenges facing President Obama in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His most recent book is Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. More at NPR.org
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?For almost three decades, Ahmed Rashid has been the foremost journalist reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Descent into Chaos is a crucial book with a timely message for policy-makers, the military, global strategists, and mostly the ill-informed public alike. Descent follows his acclaimed bestsellers Taliban and Jihad, which are the definitive works to explore the rise of radical extremism, and the massive failures of western interventionist policies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
For a western audience, as a foremost voice from the east, Descent is Rashid's definitive work, and not only provides of thoughtful, detailed dissection of seminal events in Central Asian recent history, but an insightful snapshot into future scenarios of where the roadmaps to terror and peace may be headed.?
? Greg Mortenson, author of # 1 NYT bestseller Three Cups of Tea
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