Customer Reviews

The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was nervous about this book at first. Often books that are series of chapters written by different authors can be hit or miss. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case in this book. The extremely long introduction set the book's tone, making its a detailed analysis of the various parties and ideas that make up the Taliban and was written in away that made the book easily digestible. Chapters on the Rise and fall of the Taliban and the Neo-Taliban were of particular interest. Both giving a contrasting picture of the way the movement formed and the way the "movement" exists today (extremely fragmented).

There was nice chapters on why the movement gained ground so fast, and why the new government (and ISAF) has so many problems consolidating its power today. The last conclusion was not as original or insightful, however, as the rest of the book. And seemed to jump on the failures of both the new government and ISAF with out emphasizing, as the rest of the book did, the complexities and nuances of the Afghan situation.

This book along with Ahmed Rashid's book on the Taliban, are great to have.

This book is extremely well written and is a fount of information. It is a must for anyone trying to understand the mess in Afghanistan.

A good book that highlights some great items about the Afghan political, military, and specially cultural issues. The introduction is rather long but the rest of the book coves in the chapters (separate from each other) some good points