Books

Afghanistan Aid, Armies & Empires

As the battle for Afghanistan intensifies, with humanitarian workers increasingly finding themselves on the frontline, aid expert Peter Marsden draws on decades of personal experience in the country to unravel the relationship between great power politics and development, from the Great Game era to the present day. While the US has recently been criticized for blurring the distinctions between military and humanitarian operations, the use of aid to further great power strategic objectives is, Marsden finds, nothing new. Examining the interventions of the British in the 19th Century, the Soviets in 1979, and the US in 2001, he brings to light significant new information on the use of aid in pursuit of strategic objectives. Drawing on his own experience, he explains the changing relationship between the aid community and different Afghan governments, including the Taliban. His rigorously argued conclusions are surprising; and make compelling reading matter for military and humanitarian policymakers alike. Afghanistan: Aid, Armies and Empires offers both a coruscating exploration of the relationship between aid and power, and a fresh and original history of Afghanistan through the prism of great power politics.

Other Books

A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan (2001)
Afghan Buzkashi: Power Games and Gamesmen (2000)
Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide (2005)
Afghanistan: A Modern History (2005)
Afghanistan Aid, Armies & Empires (2009)
Afghanistan: From Holy War to Civil War (1995)
Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul (2008)
Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid (2000)
Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field (2009)
Earth and Ashes (2003)
Empires of Mud: Wars and Warlords in Afghanistan (2009)
Encyclopaedia of Afghanistan (2002)
Fragmentation of Afghanistan (2002)
Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (1998)
Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan 2002-2007 (2007)
Meena: Heroine of Afghanistan (2004)
Modern Afghanistan (2004)
Monuments of Afghanistan (2008)
Organisations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond (2010)
Revolution Unending: Afghanistan, 1979 to the Present (2005)
The Afghanistan Wars (2009)
The Bookseller of Kabul (2004)
The Kite Runner (2003)
The Patience Stone (2010)
The Places in Between (2004)
The Road to Oxiana (1937)
The Sewing Circles of Herat: A Personal Voyage Through Afghanistan (2002)
The Swallows of Kabul (2005)
West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story (2002)