War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet [Paperback]

Eric Margolis (Author), Eric S. Margolis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0415934680 | ISBN-13: 978-0415934688 | Edition: 2

What will the post-Taliban government of Afghanistan look like? How will the war in Afghanistan affect the already unstable politics of Central Asia? In "War at the Top of the World," veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis presents a revelatory history of the complicated and volatile conflicts that have entangled Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, the Soviet Union, and many others.
By 1999, Pakistan had proven they have medium-range nuclear weapons, and now the threat that their government could be taken over by a radical Islamic fundamentalist faction is stronger than ever. In fact, Osama bin Laden has already claimed to have a nuclear weapon. How could this have happened? Margolis plays witness to the escalating conflicts of the past decade, tracing disputes over Afghanistan, as well as those ever neighboring Kashmir and Tibet, back to their Cold War roots, exploring clashes that continue to threaten to destabilize the region today.
Combining vivid first-hand accounts of a war correspondent with a historical and strategic overview of the region, Margolis guides the reader through the geopolitical complexities of the area and its key players. He offers a clear, concise analysis of a complicated and little-understood part of the world that is home to a quarter of the world's population. Fascinating and now more timely than ever, "War at the Top of the World" is an extraordinary read for anyone interested in the current global balance of power.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beginning with the premise that South Asia is one of the most combustible regions on the planet (a 1993 CIA study rated Kashmir as the most likely place for a nuclear war to begin), veteran foreign correspondent Margolis goes poking around the region, wondering where the spark will originate, discussing Afghanistan (especially the heavy American and Pakistani involvement in the area), the border conflicts in Kashmir and Siachen between India and Pakistan, and China's occupation of Tibet, which he sees as a model for how China might come into bloody conflict with India. The book is good on military issues and useful as a primer for the uninitiated, especially on the way that British, American and Russian policies have fueled the arms and territory battles in Afghanistan and on what India's and Pakistan's battling has cost them in lost social and economic development. But the author's fondness for generalities and potted psychologizing can be wearying: Muslim Kashmiris are "a haughty lot," Sikhs are known for their "love of revenge," the leaders of the Afghan Army suffer from a "deficit in human talent that afflicts so many backward societies." Margolis even devotes a page to the proposition that Hindu anti-Muslim sentiment is partly due to Hindus feeling sexually inferior to Muslims since Islam "encourages a robust sex life" and some Indians believe that Muslims are better lovers because they are circumcised. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Having reported for years from the Khyber Pass and the Karakoram and Himalayan ranges, journalist Margolis here distills his experience with the geopolitics of this forbidding region. To outsiders, it might seem perplexing that Pakistan, India, and China should have fought wars over uninhabitable mountains, a bewilderment Margolis dispels by explaining the stakes in Kashmir and Tibet as viewed from Islamabad, New Delhi, and Beijing. It may seem bizarre that the battlefield, at 16,000 feet of elevation, is on the Siachen Glacier, where hypoxic, frostbitten Indians and Pakastinis regularly lob shells at each other. The author's explanation makes it more understandable strategically, for he who controls the glacier controls the only Pakistan-China road. Convinced that Hindu-Muslim animosities will again erupt in war, Margolis describes the tension between China and India, played out in their nascent nuclear and naval arms races. Combining vignettes of his travels (including to Lhasa) with strategic summaries, Margolis usefully draws attention to hot spots some believe are the most likely to set off a nuclear war. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (March 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415934680
• ISBN-13: 978-0415934688
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.9 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars How I came to fear the bomb (again) December 21, 2001

By Brasidas

Format:Hardcover

Eric Margolis has written a book of tumultuous ethnic, political and religious conflict in the border regions of China, India, Pakistan, India and Tibet that rivals the tectonic majesty of the Himalayas. Although his book is short, it is an intense, detailed read of the a region in which the world's two most populous nations border, and three of the world's nuclear powers contend for regional survival and dominance.

The first part of the book focuses on Afghanistan and "the bravest men on earth." While I think that the veterans of Iwo Jima, Inchon and the Normandy invasion might have a claim or two to that title, Margolis nonetheless paints a convincing picture of tough, determined fighters bound by strict codes of honor and rivers of tribal blood. The explanations of the Great Jihad and how the defeat of the Soviet Union has dissipated the focus, and thus the forces, of the struggle against "Satan #1" have led to the present spread of militant Islam (not unlike the 7th and 8th centuries AD) are clairvoyant. While it would overstate the claim that our current war stems directly from the conflict termination of the Russo-Afghan War of the 1980's, there are strong causal ties. Margolis further accurately captures the very circumstances of controlled chaos and weak to non existent government that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qeada criminals look to exploit, whether in eastern Indonesia, southern Philippines, Afghanistan, Lebanon or eastern Africa.

After this opening section, Margolis turns his attention to another, more serious upheaval and potential for conflict with not just religious ideologies, but nuclear weapons. Margolis does a superb job of capturing in short paragraphs and chapters the British penchant for drawing arbitrary boundaries where none have ever stood or belong when dismembering their empire, and the resultant inevitable clashes. The "Durand Line" that separated the Pashtun tribe, one of the world's largest, into half in Afghanistan and half in Pakistan, is another case of British Imperial folly. As if that were not enough, the split down the middle of the Kashmir ensures a constant shifting population around that border between India and Pakistan, and armed conflict as each attempts to assert its supremacy and sovereignty over that contested fertile region. In trying to control the Kashmir, and the headwaters, both sides are naturally pushed higher and higher into the mountains, in essence trying to find a flanking position. In this case, the "flanking" movements have led them to the Siachen Glacier, 17,000 feet above sea level where men begin to die of cardiac and pulmonary edema and other exotic mountain climber maladies. Further, given the inaccessibility of the region, the cost of each round of artillery ammunition is exorbitant, and being paid by two of the poorest nations on earth for a piece of national pride. Lastly, in this section, Margolis neatly captures and summarizes the strategic dilemma for Pakistan: like Israel, lacking strategic depth and having a flat open southern border which can be quickly overrun by Indian armored task groups, Pakistan feels it has no option but to build nuclear, and be prepared to "go ugly early" in case of a war with India. Unlike the former USSR and the USA during the Cold War, neither side has enough weapons to apply the MAD doctrine, so there is no "comfortable" negating influence.

Enter the Dragon. In the last third of the book, Margolis tries to portray the depth and complexity of the relationship between China and India at the top of the world. China has its own expansionist mandate, and internal fundamental rebellious Muslim population. India, too, has an expansionist plan into the Himalayas and northern high mountain plains. Both have postured against the other looking for leverage, and a flank. While Margolis does not paint quite so bleak a picture of these tow nations and the probability of war, given their size, and rapid naval expansion of both powers, it may be more inevitable than the more intuitive Pak-India war.

This book has the traditional strengths and weaknesses of a book written by journalists. Favorably, it presents in short form a massive spectrum of international relations, geopolitics, ethnic divisiveness and religious separatism that is breath taking in its scope. Unfavorably, it requires that the reader have some pre existing knowledge of the region and subject matter. It does not have footnotes, so it is hard to plan further reading. It lacks enough maps or pictures to add richness to the written word. All in all, a good read that presents the issues clearly and concisely, prompts the reader to ask as many questions as it attempts to answer, and raises grave concern about perhaps the world's most dangerous flash point.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars journalist and asute commentor, in one engrossing book July 14, 2003

By R. M. Williams

Format:Paperback

First a couple of simple observations.

I found the book as a search of the library stacks in the tibet section. i buy almost all my books online. but i believe everyone ought to just take an hour or so each week just to skim their favorite sections of the library. this was a gem i would never have bumped into online....

on other reviewers here. this is a book that an Indian(india) would find offensive at first reading. he does not pull punches about ethnicity and its history, but this is one of the best features of the book. i hope they can see the heart that it comes from and not the surface level of words. an example would be the description of the internal Indian airlines.

Now to the book.
Its about Afganistan, Pakistan, India, and Tibet. In particular the wars and the people who fight them in this region. the author is a very unusual man, extraordinary in several ways. first his english is journalist, fast paced, honed obviously to write pieces that compete for a newpaper readers attention. Pithy in using one word where another writer would use three. a very visual writer with an imagination and a view to vivid word descriptions that is very good. He would have been as good a novelist as he is a journalist. This really acts to the book and makes the reading a great pleasure.

The topic is a timely one, even given the 2000 date on the book, or the research dating back even longer. The author is knowledgable about the area, passionate about the people and the topic, not afraid to express unpopular opinions. Organized and systematic enough that you feel that you have learned and shared his learning/passion/study. Generally simply the best of the genre.

If it is your desire to learn a little more of the history of this region, or to understand the current events starting in this region and echoing throughout our world, then start with this book. This book makes available to all of us the author's extensive travels, careful analysis, and very important observations concerning the people and events.

my Thanks to him. i am only sorry that he hasn't apparently written other books...maybe i can find a few extended essays on the net.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but highly inaccurate... November 13, 2002

By Tariq Qazmi

Format:Paperback

I am a regular reader of Mr Margolis's columns in Toronto Sun and watch 'Diplomatic Immunity', a fine international affairs program where he is a frequent guest.

Margolis has an easy writing style along with a gift for story telling. But where he falters (and falters miserably) is portrayal of facts. Since 911, American public has a new-found respect for nations that have to fight rabid Islamic militias all over the world.

This book was written in 1999, when American media was just beginning to get uncomfortable with the Taliban and America's involvement in Pakistan. His sympathies clearly lie with Islamic warmongers, almost to a point of obsession (he admits to chanting from his heart a frenzied "Allah ho Akbar" along with his hosts).

While at it, he moves along a disjointed tangent of genealogy, almost showing signs of white pride at the "fact" that Afghans are descendants of Germanic/Nordic Greeks (I am not kidding!) and therefore noble, rugged warlike people. He also seems to have maniacal dislike of India and Hindus. As he calls them shifty folks who vent out their frustration on local Moslems because of lack of adequate sex in their lives!!! Moslems on the other hand, lead a healthy, libertine sex lives and therefore are saner, more satisfied and genteel people, all by virtue of polygamy!!! But wait, that's not all! How does he come to this conclusion? There are more sex clinics in India than in Pakistan!!!

Most importantly, he never makes even a passing mention of the plight of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus). These well educated, cultured folks were brutally driven out of their native land and now live in squalid conditions in refugee camps in and around Delhi. Worse, he seems to indicate in other media sources that these folks deserved what they got for siding with Hindu India.

Make no mistake, this book was written based on short field trips to affected areas. But these trips seemed far few and arbitrary and almost none to India. He is apparently vexed at Indian authorities for not issuing him a visa. He also seems to vehemently dislike people of Chinese origin and China in general

It's an interesting read but has many vague, sweeping and unsubstantiated statements. Often one sided, but I must admit, has some valuable insights as well. I still had to give it two stars because it can be a good initiation to those unfamiliar with this region.