One of our foremost authorities on modern Afghanistan, Barnett R. Rubin has dedicated much of his career to the study of this remote mountain country. He served as a special advisor to the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke during his final mission to the region and still serves the Obama administration under Holbrooke's successor, Ambassador Marc Grossman. Now Rubin distills his unmatched knowledge of Afghanistan in this invaluable book. He shows how the Taliban arose in resistance to warlords some of whom who were raping and plundering with impunity in the vacuum of authority left by the collapse of the Afghan state after the Soviet withdrawal. The Taliban built on a centuries-old tradition of local leadership by students and teachers at independent, rural madrasas--networks that had been marginalized by the state-building royal regime that was itself destroyed by the Soviets and radicalized by the resistance to the invasion. He examines the arrival of Arab Islamists, the missed opportunities after the American-led intervention, the role of Pakistan, and the challenges of reconstruction. Rubin provides first-hand accounts of the bargaining at both the Bonn Talks of 2001 and the Afghan Constitutional Loya Jirga of 2003-2004, in both of which he participated as a UN advisor. Throughout, he discusses the significance of ethnic rivalries, the drug trade, human rights, state-building, US strategic choices, and international organizations, analyzing the missteps in these areas taken by the international community since 2001. The book covers events till the start of the Obama administration, and the final chapters provide an inside look at some of the thinking that is shaping today's policy debates inside the administration. Authoritative, nuanced, and sweeping in scope, Afghanistan in the Post-Cold War Era provides deep insight into the greatest foreign policy challenge facing America today.

Afghanistan from the Cold War through the War on Terror

History

Rubin, Barnett R.

Asia

Oxford University Press

Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know®

Afghanistan, a landlocked country in Central Asia, has improbably been at the center of international geopolitics for four decades. After the Soviet Union invaded in 1980, Afghanistan descended into an unending conflict that featured at various points most of the world's major powers. In themid-1990s, the country entered a new phase, when the Taliban took power and imposed order based on a harsh, repressive version of Islamic law. Infamously, the sheltered Osama bin Laden, whose attack on 9/11 Towers ushered in the Global War on Terror, drew tens of thousands of American troops to thecountry, where they remain today.In Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to KnowRG, leading scholar Barnett R. Rubin provides an overview of this complicated nation. After providing a concise history of Afghanistan, he explores the various peoples and cultures of the country and its relations with neighbors like Pakistan and Iran. Healso provides an authoritative overview of the conflicts that have plagued the country since the Soviet invasion. Both wide-ranging and pithy, this book explains why Afghanistan matters and what its possible future might look like.

Afghanistan's fourteen-year-long civil war erupted in 1978 and ended in the disintegration of a state that was first hyperarmed by the superpowers and then abandoned by them. This book analyzes the part played by international politics in this debacle, discussing how changing patterns of strategic conflict and cooperation have affected international negotiations over Afghanistan from the period of the civil war to the present.

The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State

Yale University Press

This monumental book examines Afghan society in conflict, from the 1978 communist coup to the fall of Najibullah, the last Soviet-installed president, in 1992. This edition, newly revised by the author, reflects developments since then and includes material on the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. It is a book that now seems remarkably prescient. Drawing on two decades of research, Barnett R. Rubin, a leading expert on Afghanistan, provides a fascinating account of the nature of the old regime, the rise and fall of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and the troubled Mujahidin resistance. He relates all these phenomena to international actors, showing how the interaction of U.S. policy and Pakistani and Saudi Arabian interests has helped to create the challenges of today. Rubin puts into context the continuing turmoil in Afghanistan and offers readers a coherent historical explanation for the country’s social and political fragmentation. Praise for the earlier edition: “This study is theoretically informed, empirically grounded, and gracefully written. Anyone who wants to understand Afghanistan’s troubled history and the reasons for its present distress should read this book.” —Foreign Affairs “This is the book on Afghanistan for the educated public.” —Political Science Quarterly

The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Second Edition

Americas

A very long and boring book and you should save your money to not throw it away on this piece of garbage! the author is a thief!

In 1996, there were violent intrastate conflicts in ninety countries around the world. Governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and scholars continue to investigate how these deadly conflicts can be prevented. In order to assess what has been learned about conflict prevention and encourage further examination of cases and strategies, the Center for Preventive Action (CPA) of the Council on Foreign Relations convenes an annual conference. CPA's December 1996 Conference on Preventive Action examined three regions where CPA has programs--Nigeria, the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, and the South Balkans--and three tools of prevention--religion, economic sanctions and incentives, and small weapons disarmament. This conference volume is the second book in CPA's series of Preventive Action Reports. It uses CPA's case studies to examine the effectiveness of the tools of preventive action, and draws on comparative studies to guide the analysis of the case studies. Included: Edward J. Laurance of the Monterey Institute of International Studies on small weapons disarmament; David Cortright of the Fourth Freedom Forum and George Lopez of the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, on the use of economic sanctions and incentives; Reverend Donald Shriver of Union Theological Seminary on religion and violence prevention; Steven Burg of Brandeis University on the South Balkans; Michael Lund of Creative Associates International on Burundi and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa; and Peter Lewis of American University on Nigeria.

Cases and Strategies for Preventive Action: Report of the Center for Preventive Action's 1996 Annual Conference (Preventive Action Reports, Vol 2)

Politics & Social Sciences

Center for Preventive Action Conference 1996 (New York, N. Y.)

Social Sciences

Brookings Inst Pr

Of all the regions of the former Soviet Union, Central Asia is potentially one of the most explosive and certainly one of the least understood. It is also growing rapidly in importance to U.S. national security, commercial, and foreign policy interests: it has vast oil, gas, gold, and other resources; it has become a source and transit route for narcotics and possible nuclear and other materials; and it is affected by the fierce conflicts in Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Vast in size (larger than Eastern and Western Europe combined), and with a rapidly growing population of over 50 million people, it is marked by the persistence of relatively corrupt and authoritarian governments. This report assesses the potential for conflict in Central Asia through the prism of one of its most volatile areas, the Ferghana Valley. Spanning parts of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, the Ferghana Valley is home to 20 percent of Central Asia's entire population. The region has recently experienced increasing religious and ethnic tensions--the further danger being that instability in the valley could spread more widely throughout Central Asia. The Ferghana Valley project of the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action (CPA) has produced this report as the fourth volume in its series of Preventive Action Reports. Sponsored by The Council on Foreign Relations and The Century Foundation.

Calming the Ferghana Valley: Development and Dialogue in the Heart of Central Asia (Preventive Action Reports, V. 4)

Business & Money

Council On Foreign Relations

Lubin, Nancy

Century Foundation

Center for Preventive Action Ferghana Valley Working Group

Economics

Nigeria poses one of the globe's greatest challenges and risks. It is Africa's most populous country and a major exporter of oil and, potentially, of natural gas, but it's people's efforts to realize their potential have been frustrated by internal conflicts and misrule. The country was nearly torn apart by a secession movement and civil war during 1967-70. Recent crises, set off by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, once again raised the specter of internal conflict. The current military regime's carefully controlled political transition plan and intermittent economic reforms do not confront the real problems facing the country and may in fact aggravate them. To investigate the degree of danger and consider various strategies to meet it, the Council on Foreign Relations' Center for Preventive Action (CPA) established a working group on Nigeria. This volume, the third in the CPA series of Preventive Action Reports, presents the group's findings and recommendations. It advocates a strategy of graduated pressure, including some sanctions, incentives in response to positive change, clearer communication of policy goals to the Nigerian government and public, and long-term engagement with Nigerian civil society that will provide the basic underpinning for any genuine transition.

Stabilizing Nigeria: Sanctions, Incentives, and Support for Civil Society (Preventive Action Reports, Vol 3)

Robinson, Pearl T.

LEWIS, Peter

Africa

Twentieth Century Fund

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rubin, Barnett R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rubin, Barnett R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rubin, Barnett R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Afghanistan from the Cold War through the War on Terror

Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know®

Afghanistan: What Everyone Needs to Know®

Afghanistan from the Cold War through the War on Terror

The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State

The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Second Edition

The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Second Edition

Cases and Strategies for Preventive Action: Report of the Center for Preventive Action's 1996 Annual Conference (Preventive Action Reports, Vol 2)

Calming the Ferghana Valley: Development and Dialogue in the Heart of Central Asia (Preventive Action Reports, V. 4)

Stabilizing Nigeria: Sanctions, Incentives, and Support for Civil Society (Preventive Action Reports, Vol 3)