Ahmed Rashid

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and writer, is the author most recently of Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Penguin, 2009). His book Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale, 2010) has been updated and republished on the tenth anniversary of its original release.

Essays

Society

The Anarchic Republic of Pakistan

| 08.24.10

Pakistan's military-intelligence complex is too preoccupied with countering India to mount a serious campaign against radicals who threaten the nation's survival. The country is being destroyed from within.

Security

Trotsky in Baluchistan

| 10.27.09

Afghanistan is in crisis. Unless we redouble our efforts, the Taliban will take Kabul and throw the entire region into chaos.

Commentary

Global Governance

The Devolution of Pakistan

| 05.23.11

Chaos and ambiguity reign supreme in Islamabad. Pakistan is lost at sea without a paddle.

Security

Scrounging for Answers in Afghanistan

| 12.17.10

Here's hoping the classified version of the Afghanistan strategy review has more meat on the bone than the bland public assessment.

Society

Paralysis in Pakistan

| 10.04.10

The last thing Pakistan needed right now was a confrontation with the United States and NATO over Afghanistan.