Descent into Chaos

The US and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia.
Speaker: Ahmed Rashid, author and journalist.
(Jun 10, 2008 at the University of Chicago. Courtesy of CHIASMOS)

The growing instability and resurgence of Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan pose a great threat to U.S. interests and global security. In his new book, Descent into Chaos, Ahmed Rashid examines the rising insurgency, booming opium trade, and weak governance in Afghanistan, concluding that U.S. strategy in the region has been a complete failure.

Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. He was the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, for 22 years until the magazine was recently closed down. He presently writes for the Daily Telegraph, London, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Review of Books, BBC Online, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, and academic and foreign affairs journals. He appears regularly on international TV and radio such as CNN and BBC World Service. He is the author of three books, including the best sellers Taliban and most recently Jihad.

From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

© 2008, The University of Chicago

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• uchannel
• chicago
• usa
• pakistan
• afghanistan
• war
• security
• books

[potpie921]

excellent

[doormatjack]

Info Kemp, read what is happening in Syria, Gaza, and the Muslin brotherhood in Egypt.

All are Iran proxies, and I don't feel the taliban is a threat to the US.

[bvrcrap56]

is this guy on drugs? smart, maybe, but he can hardly talk...slow down...

[oceanbound222]

Totally brilliant man !!!

[infokemp]

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia fund the Taliban and we want to start a war with Iran wtf?

[ata4lovelygirls]

This man has indepth knowledge of the region. good lecture

[myqarar]

This world has had enough of US and Neo-Cons' con to the rest of the world by creating mosters in first place and then calling BLOODYU MURDER (UN International Massacre law) ...

[Ghurshah]

Thank you.