A Democracy Is Born: An Insider's Account of the Battle
Against Terrorism in Afghanistan (Hardcover), by Matthew J. Morgan. Praeger Security
International General Interest-Cloth (September 30, 2007).
Drawn from the author's experiences in Afghanistan
in 2004-05, this volume discusses security and intelligence aspects of conducting an
election in conditions of terrorism and guerrilla warfare.... Many of the anecdotes Morgan
recounts have a turf-war flavor to them, as he describes being detached to the UN
management of Afghanistan's presidential election of October 2004, won by Hamid Karzai.
When not illustrating friction among the international entities--the UN, NATO, the
U.S.-led military coalition, humanitarian NGOs, which were attempting to transform Afghanistan
from its traditional tribalism into a democracy--Morgan imparts the customs of automobile
driving in the country, bargaining in the bazaar, and other observations of daily life.
These are Morgan's practical appeal, while his analysis of the intelligence function may
be helpful, too, to members of American military services deploying to Afghanistan.
Specialized to be sure, but a work professionally useful to its audience. Information
Allah's Torch: A Report from Behind the Scenes in Asia's
War on Terror (Hardcover), by Tracy Dahlby (Author), Iva Hacker-Delany (Designer).
William Morrow; First edition (January 4, 2005).
Vast, vital and incredibly diverse
economically, socially, ethnically and religiously, the Republic of Indonesia has been hit
hard by successive dictatorships, the East Asian recession and religious militants.
Dahlby, former Newsweek and Washington Post bureau chief, begins his journalistic account
of his pre- and post-9/11 travels there with a study of religious conflict in the Moluccas
in 1999. A reluctant interisland passenger along with several hundred Islamic jihadis, he
meets a Moluccan elder statesman and his savvy daughter. On a later trip, he finds the
country suffering from the aftereffects of 9/11 and American pressure to deal with what is
inaccurately perceived as a monolithic jihadist movement—Indonesia's Islam, and its
militant factions, are no more monolithic than any other aspect of the country. While he
gives short history lessons (on Indonesia's Dutch colonial period, for instance) and cuts
to larger current political debates during his journeys, Dahlby stays closer to his own
feelings and the logistics of his trips than many readers will want: his style is
sometimes positively chatty; he draws on his own politics freely in interpreting his
experiences. Yet the writing has a strong visual quality and vividly drawn players given
the desperate shortage of popular material on Indonesia, this title helps fill the
information gap. Information
China's War
on Terrorism: Counter-Insurgency, Politics and Internal Security (Asian Security
Studies) (Hardcover), by Martin I. Wayne. Routledge; 1 edition (December 20, 2007).
China’s war on terror is among its most
prominent and least understood of campaigns. With links to the global jihad, an indigenous
insurgency threatens the government’s grip on a massive region of north- western China
known as Xinjiang. Riots, bombings, ambushes, and assassinations have rocked the region
under separatist and Islamist banners. China acted early and forcefully, and although
brutal, their efforts represent one of the few successes in the global struggle against
Islamist terrorism. The effectiveness of this campaign has raised questions regarding
whether China genuinely confronts a terrorist threat. In this book, based on extensive
fieldwork, Martin Wayne investigates China’s counterinsurgency effort, highlighting
the success of an approach centered on reshaping local society and government
institutions. At the same time, he raises the question of what the United States may be
able to learn from China’s approach, and argues that as important a case as Xinjiang
needs to be fully examined in order for terrorism to be defeated. Information
Controlling Arms And Terror in the Asia Pacific: After
Bali And Baghdad (Hardcover), by Marika Vicziany (Editor). Edward Elgar Publishing
(March 7, 2007).
The Asia Pacific is rent by communal
conflicts that have generated local jihads, which fuel regional and global jihads. This
book assesses state responses to terrorism, paying attention to neglected factors such as
money laundering, the emerging role of the EU, the growing fear of the US and increasing
concern about the way anti-terrorist legislation curtails civil liberties. With the
benefit of extensive fieldwork and access to unique sources in many languages, the
contributors analyze key features of the local security scenarios. Pakistan's precarious
situation is explored here from many angles, including Islamic militancy, the role of the
military and the peace process with India. Again, domestic failures support regional and
global terror. Regional anti-terrorist collaboration is also hampered by South-east Asia's
counter-terrorism dilemmas, setbacks in the Philippine-US security relationship, the Asian
arms race, and growing fears of the US National Missile Defence system and how this system
will be perceived by China. The history of state sponsored terrorism and millenarian
ideology are crucial to these regional scenarios. The latter, in the particular form of Japan's
Aum Shinrikyo movement, reminds us that militant Islamists are not uniquely destructive.
An important addition to the literature on terrorism and security, this in-depth and
comprehensive analysis of a complex and increasingly unstable region will be welcomed by
political scientists, scholars, policymakers, and those seeking a better understanding of
whether the Global War on Terror has changed the security architecture of the Asia-Pacific
in a positive way. Information
Falling Terrorism and Rising Conflicts: The Afghan
"Contribution" to Polarization and Confrontation in West and South Asia
(Hardcover), by Hooman Peimani. Praeger Publishers (September 30, 2003).
Contrary to expectations, the fall of the
Taliban did not bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. The Afghan interim government is
simply too weak to act as a central government; this results in the re-emergence of
warlords, turf wars, and the expansion of drug trafficking. This unstable situation may
well result in the emergence of Taliban-like groups. Added to this, the threat of the
spillover of instability from Afghanistan into neighboring regions, on the one hand, and
the rapid expansion of American military and political power in Central Asia, the
Caucasus, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, on the other, have created fear
among the regional powers. The stated indefinite stay of American forces well after the
end of the anti-terrorist war in Afghanistan has worsened that fear as it reflected the
American government's plan to pursue certain strategic interests unrelated to that war.
Consequently, as Peimani shows, the regional anti-terrorist coalition has disintegrated in
the absence of a common objective to help focus the region. Fear of the long-term American
objectives and those of its Pakistani ally in South and West Asia incompatible with those
of the regional powers have facilitated the creation of two camps consisting of Iran, India,
and Russia, to which China is affiliated, and Pakistan and the United States.
Respectively, these implicit and explicit camps are likely to collide over their regional
interests especially in the strategically important energy-producing Persian Gulf and Caspian
Sea regions. Information
Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism in America's
Asia Policy (Adelphi Papers)
(Paperback), by Rosemary Foot. Routledge; 1 edition (March 31, 2004).
This work examines the extent to which
the 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA compromised the promotion of an external human
rights policy. It concludes that human rights policy depends predominantly on domestic
factors. Information
Urban Battle Fields of South Asia: Lessons Learned
from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan (Paperback), by C. Christine Fair. RAND Corporation
(January 25, 2005).
Examines several case studies of
sustained campaigns of urban terrorism perpetrated by various domestic groups in the
countries of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Information
Counter-Terrorism Reading Room
Visit Remy Mauduit's Web Site, Former Insurgent
and Counter-Insurgent
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