Feryal Ali Gauhar's new novel is an unmitigated tale of horror – bestial fact stacked upon bestial fact, evoking revulsion and nausea. The book's jacket claims that
Five years of backward progress on securing the country now has NATO forces taking over security in Afghanistan. With few of the lessons of the past having sunk in, it appears unlikely that the country will breathe easier in the coming year.
Demands by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan for 'Freedom, Democracy and Social Justice' remain as critical—and contentious—today as they were three decades ago.
If a border isn't recognised by those on either side, does it still exist? That has long been the burning question along the Durand Line, the 112-year-
Even though there is fear of electoral violence, even though parties are disallowed, even though this is an election organised to fit an international timetable, there is hope that the general elections of 18 September will give Afghans the politics of representation and deliver them from the gun.
The reconstruction of the Afghan economy hinges on the development of infrastructure, the restoration of the institutions of state and the economic space within which they can pursue a national development agenda. But what is the reality of aid-supported development in the country? Is the present mo
Now that the bombing is over and Osama and Omar have evacuated themselves, Afghanistan will once again recede from our mindset. But we still do not know Afghanistan. In an
After nearly a month of US-led military strikes in fi.Afghanistan, the future of the country is less certain now than at any time since 1996. The Taliban emerged
Pakistan has moved from being an international 'basket case' to 'frontline state' in just a month. The change has been stunningly quick. For two years, Musharraf
The US response to the carnage perpetrated on 11 September, could be a catalyst for an unwinnable, long drawn war without frontiers. A 'shoot first ask questions later'
War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir and Tibet
by Eric Margolis; Routledge, New York; 2000; pp 250; USD 22; ISBN: 0415927129
The Himalayan watershed
