1n the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United states declared war on terrorism. More than ten years later, the results are decidedly mixed. Here world-renowned author, diplomat, and scholar Akbar Ahmed reveals an important yet largely ignored result of this war: in many nations it has exacerbated the already broken relationship between central governments and the largely rural Muslim tribal societies on the peripheries of both Muslim and non-Muslim nations. The center and the periphery are engaged in a mutually destructive civil war across the globe, a conflict that has been intensified by the war on terror. Conflicts between governments and tribal societies predate the war on terror in many regions, from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa, pitting those in the centers of power against those who live in the outlying provinces. Akbar Ahmed’s unique study demonstrates that this conflict between the center and the periphery has entered a new and dangerous stage with U.S. involvement after 9/n and the deployment of drones, in the hunt for al Qaeda, threatening thevery existence of many tribal societies American f irepowerand its vast anti-terror network have turned the war on terror into a global war on tribal Islam. And too often the victims are innocent children at school, women in their homes, workers simply trying to earn a living, and worshipers in their mosques. Battered by military attacks or drone strikes one day and suicide bombers the next, the tribes bemoan, “Everyday is like 9/11 for us.”

In The Thistle and the Drone, the third volume in Ahmed’s groundbreaking trilogy examining relations between America and the Muslim world, the author draws on forty case studies representing the global spanof Islam to demonstrate how the U.S. has become involved directly or indirectly in each of these societies. The study provides the social and historical context necessary to understand how both central governments and tribal societies have become embroiled in America’s war. Beginning with Waziristan and expanding to societies in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, Ahmed offers a fresh approach to the conflicts studied and presents an unprecedented paradigm for understanding and winning the war on terror.
ISBN: 9789694025667
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS

Water is an important input to irrigated agriculture. In Pakistan unfortunately, it is fast becoming a diminishing resource due to many reasons including global warming. To meet present and future requirements, water should be conserved in the country at as many places as possible. However, politics of water is not allowing it to happen.

Hydro-Politics in Indus River Basin by Iqtidar H. Siddiqui is a comprehensive commentary on the management and utilization of Indus River system waters both internationally and domestically and describes the Hydro-Political forces, which do not permit advancement in water sector in the country.

The book infect gives a ‘wake-up call’ to the country in view of diminishing water resources, expected ‘water disaster’ due to climate change and hydro-political forces in the country.
ISBN: 9789694025438
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS

The paradox of General Musharrafs years in power was that he was a “liberal” ruler under whom Pakistan became a religious- extremist society. He advocated ‘enlightened moderation’ but was rebuffed by a people most in need of enlightenment and moderation. Terrorism flourished under him in the shape of new religious attitudes and as a reaction to his largely successful foreign policy that included cooperation with the United States in the war against terrorism and normalization of relations with India after his ‘Kargil blunder’ in 1999. He was probably the most creative handler of the Kashmir issue since independence but was unable or unwilling to counteract the jihadi organizations intent on undermining his governance. The surge of sectarian violence during his time was in no small measure owed to his use of ambivalence as a tool of policy. It is therefore an irony that violence and terrorism escalated in defiance of his liberal mission statement. This 1)00k records tins phenomenon and examines the mainsprings of General Musharrafs failure as a ruler. It thus also foreshadows and explains the chaos that has engulfed Pakistan’s resumed democracy after 2008.
ISBN: 9789694025391
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS

General Musharraf was not as disliked in Pakistan in 1999, when he seized power, as he was in 2008 when he lost it. Before we bur him in history as vet another autocratic ruler, it is important to go back and see what he did right together with much that he did wrong. In some ways he was go 0(1 for Pakistan within the dictatorial paradigm of Pakistan because he was a ‘liberal’ ruler after a decade of General Zia ul Haq’s ‘religious’ rule. Pakistan has buried Zia in its archives of ‘dismissed’ dictators but remains conscious of the fact that much of what he imposed as Islamisation has been internalized by Pakistani society. Should this also be true of General Musharraf? Have we internalized some of the liberalisation that lie imposed on us This book makes a fair assessment of his foreign policy which was, by and large, successful, and his tolerance of women and the minorities, without sparing him for failing in some of the liberal reforms lie had undertaken, and his weakness vis-à-vis the jihadi organizations and the army he headed.
ISBN: 9789694025384
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS

Just in time for the elections, Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about compassionate conservativism and the war on terror. Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy-the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders’ tyranny.

First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire. Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize-and apply-the scope of our power, exhorting US dockworkers to refuse to load materials war-bound, reservists to reject their call-ups, activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton, and citizens of other nations to collectively resist being deputized as janitor-soldiers to clear away the detritus of the US invasion.

Roy’s Guide to Empire also offers us sharp theoretical tools for understanding the New American Empire-a dangerous paradigm, Roy argues here, that is entirely distinct from the imperialism of the British or even the New World Order of George Bush, the elder. She examines how resistance movements build power, using examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the deplorable conditions many African Americans, in particular, must still confront.

With Roy as our guide, we may not be able to relax from the Sisyphean task of stopping the U.S. juggernaut, but at least we are assured that the struggle for global justice is fortified by Roy’s hard-edged brilliance.
ISBN: 9789694025285
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS

Uniquely representing all sides in the conflict over Kashmir, this innovative new book provides a forum for discussion not only of existing proposals for ending the conflict, but also of possible new paths toward settlement. Contributors from India, Pakistan, and Kashmir explore the national and sub national dimensions of the ongoing hostilities, the role of the international community, and future prospects. The result is an informed overview of the present state of affairs—and a realistic examination of the potential for peaceful resolution.
ISBN: 9789694025254
Publisher: VANGUARD BOOKS