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Ahmed Rashid

Descent Into Chaos: The World's Most Unstable Region and the Threat to Global Security Paperback – January 1, 2009

by Ahmed Rashid (Author)

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The war on terror is being lost - but not just in Iraq. As this devastating book shows, the real crisis zone now lies in central Asia. Veteran reporter Ahmed Rashid has unparalleled access to the region and knows its leading players, from presidents to warlords. Here he documents how closely Pakistan's US-backed regime is linked with extremists; how broken promises in Afghanistan have led to a resurgent Taliban fed by drugs money; and how the largest landmass in the world is now a breeding ground for terrorism. In this story of squandered opportunities, misguided alliances and double-dealing, Rashid pinpoints with chilling accuracy where the true threat to our global security comes from.

Print length

560 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

January 1, 2009
Dimensions

5.12 x 1.02 x 7.87 inches
ISBN-10

0141020865
ISBN-13

978-0141020860
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Ahmed Rashid
118
Paperback
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; 0 edition (January 1, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0141020865
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141020860
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.12 x 1.02 x 7.87 inches

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4.3 73 ratings

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Ahmed Rashid

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Ahmed Rashid is a journalist who has been covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia for more than twenty years. He is a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, Far Eastern Economic Review, Daily Telegraph, and The Nation, a leading newspaper in Pakistan. His #1 New York Times bestseller Taliban has been translated into more than twenty languages.

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4.3 out of 5

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shawn

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2017

Great read

Excellent book. Comprehensive and insightful

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015

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Excellent book. Comprehensive and insightful.

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M. Laine

Brilliant research, heavy reading

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2012

I read this book as a paperback under the name "Descent into Chaos: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Threat to Global Security". Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist who has written exhaustively about Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Taliban and al-Qaida. He has been active in different intergovernmental bodies dealing with the problems of the area and definitely has authority on subjects around South and Central Asia.

Rashid's book is not an easy read. It's packed with information about people, politics, terrorists and more. It tells the story of Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan and Pervez Musharraf the Pakistani leader as well as the United States' failure to secure Afghanistan after the invasion following the September 11th attacks in America. Rashid has a personal connection to many of the leaders described in the book, and is able to shed light into the decisions they make, probably better than anybody else. The book is packed with personal accounts of Afghan warlords, Heads of states, Taliban leaders as well as common people. This is where Rashid shines; he has profound knowledge and decades long experience in the area. He writes at length about developments in the US and Europe as well, but lacks the same depth of knowledge there. His scathing criticisms of the Bush government actions after 9/11 feel a little over the top.

The picture emerging of the power politics in the area is a scary one. Rashid exposes Pakistan's intelligence service's role in supporting the Taliban and al-Qaida, while trying to secure financial aid from the United States and supplying the US with intelligence about the groups. He describes how Taliban and al-Qaida regrouped after fleeing to Pakistan when US air strikes and US backed Northern Alliance offensives against them started. The main question that arises is: What would the situation in Afghanistan be today, had the US and the international community really committed to nation building after the US ousting of the Taliban from power?

I had trouble finishing this book. There is no denying the huge amount of research that went into Rashid's book, but it is heavy reading. The story has so many individuals, it's difficult to keep track of them, even if the author supplies a partial glossary of names. Abbreviations are also abundant, sometimes comically so; ISI, NWFP, NA, FATA, JUI, UN etc. litter the pages and one needs to frequently skip back to find the actual definition for these. I think Rashid could have kept it more concise by contentrating just on the Pakistan-Afghanistan issue alone, leaving American policies and actions in other parts of the world for another volume. Shortly: informative and at times exciting, but too rich in content for the casual reader. Great for someone who needs to get up-to-date with the previous decade's issues in the area. Not so great for the average Joe like me, who picks it up at the airport book stall for reading on the flight.

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Caped Crusader

Thorough On Predicament, Short On Prescription

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 24, 2009

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Reading Ahmed Rashid's 'Decent Into Chaos' after two books on two other key players in the war on terror ( Saudi Arabia and Iran ), this almost read like part 3 of a trilogy; not only in understanding the real bases of global Islamic terror, but where the `show' is likely headed next.

The book is divided into 4 parts: `9/11 and War', `The Politics of the 9/11 World', `The Failure of Nation Building' and `Descent Into Chaos'. These sections are further sub-divided into chapters. I found the first two, and last sections, to be the most engaging.

The difficulties so far in the war on terror are described through the political framework of Afghanistan. First, the life of Afghanistan, after the US pullout at the end of the Soviet invasion, all the way through to 9/11, then post-9/11 through the attempted freeing of the country from the Taliban; then, through the attempted democratic political process which followed.

As ever, Rashid's expertise of his home country is second to none. Pakistan's role in creating al-Qaida and the Taliban is explained, Pakistan's continual escape from international condemnation and gaining the upper-political-hand in Afghanistan, sponsoring terror organisations - while the US was in neighbouring Afghanistan fighting those same organisations - has to be read to be believed. On the other hand what doesn't have to be read to be believed is the American administration's strategic blunders in Afghanistan, as is all too painfully evident. I felt the conclusion was a little short on substance considering the book is named after the last part of this book, but this is probably just anti-climax considering the revelations I had just read.

Recently, after having gone through a spate of books written in foreign languages and then translated into English, Rashid's phrasing and style was a joy to behold. However, in stark contrast to the intelligent analysis of the goings on in Pakistan and Afghanistan, are the descriptions of the US administration. Rashid possesses an extreme anti-American bias which does become tiresome after a while. This is probably due to him having simply used other writers such as Bob Woodward and Noam Chomsky. America bungles and hesitates to put troops on the ground, not because it is attempting to apply lessons from the Vietnam conflict or lessons from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (which has become known as the Soviet's Vietnam), but because America is an `empirical colonist.'

Whatever reputation Rashid acquired in the upper echelons of international diplomacy with Taliban , he's sure to have squandered it with the introduction to this book alone. Whatever his reasons for his anti-American outlook, it is bizarre that a book intended as a wake-up call and plead for the US to rebuild Afghanistan (not to mention the whole of Central Asia) should descend into polemic and other conspiracy theories which do him no favours.

An example of this contrasting viewpoint is when Rashid describes a Pakistani operation in southern Waziristan, and his descriptions in the following chapter of the US:

Following a fatwa by Ayman Al Zawahiri (al-Qaida's number 2) decreeing the assassination of president Musharaf, Pakistan finally became convinced of the need for action against the Taliban, allegedly. What followed was an operation into the region; Two weeks of fighting later - with helicopter gunships, fighter jets and tanks, along with 50,000 refugees from surrounding villages - the total lack of coordination between the Pakistani ISI and the Frontier Corps on the ground seemed strange. US officials knew the ISI had deep knowledge of the enemy's armaments and numbers, yet none of this intelligence seemed to have reached the forces on the ground. US officials in Kabul and Islamabad wondered if the failed operation was due to a lack of coordination or deliberate...

Turn the page after this, and Rashid describes a decision which was a step backwards for mankind. Not the chaos and misery the ISI inflicted upon its own people in the previous chapter, nor beheadings shown on al-Qaida websites, nor the instructions by the Taliban that young boys should kill their parents if they refuse to let them become martyrs, but because George W Bush did not grant al-Qaida or the Taliban POW status.

A useful clue for the reasons for this bias is Rashid's claim that radical Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir are non-violent. He also explains that Hizb ut-Tahrir shares many tenets with Wahabism. This is a bit like saying although Hitler shared many beliefs with Mussolini; Hitler wasn't as bad because he was a vegetarian. This reveals Rashid is more than likely a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and probably goes a long way towards explaining why he does not reveal anything about Pakistani/Saudi relations, which would've given this book added depth and a new dimension. You will not see Rashid talk about the single greatest obstacle in solving the War On Terror: Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Amazingly enough, in the context of the war on terror, it seems that the condemnation of the Taliban or al-Qaida is enough for those in the British establishment to `prove' oneself as a moderate Muslim. No wonder MI6 unknowingly employed al-Qaida's top man in Europe for intelligence gathering...

While this book will fill many peoples' knowledge gap in this area, due to the bias, it is deliberately limited. This makes it long on details, long on dispair but short on answers.

However, I still feel the information on Pakistan is brilliant and the analysis eye-opening. I would've liked some proper insights as to some of the Bush administrations' seemingly bizarre decisions, however until something more rounded comes along, I have rated this a 4 star read.

9 people found this helpful

Frances B.

Second hand??

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2023

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Looks like it has been folded over a few times. Not new

Seoulprovider

Frankenstein's Monster

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2013

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A fascinating, engrossing and deeply disturbing book about the existential threat to Pakistan. Well written and detailed Descent tells the story of Pakistan's Military and Intelligence Services (the ISI) deliberately nurturing Islamic fundamentalism within Pakistan. In part this was intended to unite the nation under an Islamic banner. The problem of course is that Pakistan isn't one country - but a federation of different provinces shot-gun wedded together by Partition in 1947. These provinces have significant cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities of their own which the glue of Islam isn't holding together - and the Pakistani Taliban courtesy of the ISI are engaged now in a murderous sectarian campaign against Pakistani civilians, minorities and the Pakistani state itself. As for the Pakistani state itself it is mired in corruption, unable to reform and unable to confront the very horror it has sponsored and created. Powerful stuff.

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Amazon Kunde

Empfehlenswert!

Reviewed in Germany on November 17, 2021

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sehr fundierte Analyse!

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Gianluca

Verità storica

Reviewed in Italy on May 1, 2021

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Un libro da leggere assolutamente per avvicinarsi se vicende storiche del medioriente. La visione dello scrittore è molto critica nei confronti degli attori sia regionali che occidentali. Scorre nella lettura,piacevolissimo

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