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ISLAMIC STATE
₨ 1,395This book takes the long-view by analysing Islamic State’s beginnings in Iraq to their involvement in the Arab Spring and through to the present day.
The world is watching IS’s advance through the Middle East. The US risks being drawn into another war in the region despite its experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. IS are creating catastrophic waves across the region, but it is still unclear what lies behind its success.
Michael Griffin uncovers the nature of IS through investigating the myriad of regional players engaged in a seemingly endless power game: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iraq, which have all contributed to the success of IS by supplying arms and funds.
He foregrounds the story of the uprising against President Assad of Syria, the role played by the Free Syrian Army, Islamist groups, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, the chemical weapons attacks in 2013 and the House of Commons vote not to impose a no-fly zone over the country.
ISBN: 9780745336510
Publisher: PLUTO PRESS -
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
₨ 1,195Reaping the Whirlwind provides the first comprehensive profile of the Taliban in the twenty-first century. Drawing on numerous interviews with key protagonists, conducted over a period of several years, Michael Griffin provides a fascinating eyewitness account of the Afghan conflict. He explains the origins and beliefs of the Taliban movement, its religious and political ethos, and the character of its particular brand of so-called Islamic fundamentalism.
Crucially, he examines the controversial nature of the Taliban’s international links with the US, Saudi Arabia, and other vested interests. Griffin also explores the Taliban’s connections with Osama bin Laden, drug barons and drug dealers, and the CIA’s ambiguous relationship with what is often viewed as an international Islamist conspiracy. Situated between Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet states, Afghanistan has historically fulfilled the role of an artificial ‘buffer state.
Resource rich and strategically important, it has been of particular interest since the end of the Cold War to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Pakistan and the United States, as well as to drug barons, arms dealers and oil corporations. Afghanistan’s unstable and problematic history has been further complicated in recent years by the emergence of the Taliban-perhaps the most conservative and least understood Islamic movement in the world.
ISBN: 9694024331
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS
