Bøger om Centralasien

Can the United States find ways to cooperate with China or Russia in the Indo-Pacific, either to temper geopolitical rivalry or as a strategy to use cooperation with one of the two countries as an advantage against the other? Using official U.S., Chinese, and Russian policy documents, leadership statements, and other sources, the authors of this report assess the prospects for great power cooperation on seven issues: securing a free and open Indo-Pacific, ensuring the defense of key allies and partners, expanding cooperation with new partners in Southeast Asia, ensuring peace in the Taiwan Strait, achieving the denuclearization of North Korea, countering terrorism, and deepening U.S. geostrategic ties with India. The authors find that, because of the divergence in the three countries' strategic views and policy goals, there is little room for U.S. cooperation with China or Russia in the Indo-Pacific. This implies that cooperation in order to tamp down competitive pressures or to drive wedges between Beijing and Moscow is an unpromising approach to managing ties or competition with these great powers. Instead, the United States will be better off focusing on preparations for long-term competition than striving to turn Beijing and Moscow against each other. This research was completed in September 2020, before the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and before the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. It has not been subsequently revised.

From 2001 to 2021, the United States pursued an unchanging policy objective in Afghanistan: to prevent a terrorist group from using the country as a safe haven in which to plan or launch an attack on the United States. However, despite deteriorating conditions and no apparent hope of military victory, the U.S. goal remained constant even as successive leaders experimented with different strategies to achieve it. The authors examined the reasons behind this policy inertia through interviews with the senior leaders involved in the policy deliberations between 2001 and 2016. They interviewed the decisionmakers involved in high-level discussions and policy formulation to establish the institutional, informational, and interpersonal dynamics that informed major decisions; capture common interpretations and assumptions; and reconstruct how the deliberative process functioned in practice. As this analysis details, decisions for how to navigate de-escalation from a conflict under conditions short of victory are tremendously difficult, both practically and politically. With no clear definition of success, bureaucratic inertia took hold, extending the conflict and enabling focus on mechanical details of its execution rather than its ultimate intent. The dynamics of the policy process further prevented dramatic policy change. Psychological factors promoted risk aversion and a continued escalation of commitment, even when the mission itself became poorly aligned with national priorities. Additionally, frictions between civilian and military leaders and with the Intelligence Community further prevented fundamental reassessments of the mission.

"Tali girls is an extraordinary book: poetic in its focus on the most humble moments of life and smallest details of landscape, and utterly devastating in its depiction of bright, passionate girls being crushed by corruption and desperation in an Afghanistan that has tried to render them powerless. That they are not powerless is revealed in sometimes shocking ways"--

A searing indictment of how Afghan elites and the Western powers pulled the rug on the Afghan people, abandoning them to their fate.

Foråret efter Talibans fald i 2002 flyttede Åsne Seierstad ind hos familien Khan i Kabul. Oplevelserne hos den afghanske storfamilie danner baggrund for denne fortælling om Afghanistans og familiens skæbne. Gennem nære portrætter af familiemedlemmerne hører vi om deres hverdagsliv og skikke – om frieri, forbudt kærlighed og arrangerede ægteskaber og om samfundets undertrykkelse, magtmisbrug og strenge krav til, hvordan man skal leve sit liv.

This volume includes cutting-edge research on the spread of Syrian Christianity along the Silk Road from the 6th to the 14th century. Recent archaeological discoveries and excavations of ancient and medieval Christian sites in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and China shed new light on Christian communities in Central Asia, China and Mongolia. Scholars from such fields as archaeology, manuscript studies, history and theology have contributed, offering new insights into the influence of Syriac Christianity along the Silk Roads. Li Tang is Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Christian East (ZECO), University of Salzburg/Austria.Dietmar W. Winkler is Head of the Department of Biblical Studies and Ecclesiastical History, and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the Christian East (ZECO), University of Salzburg/Austria

Tale of Ahmed is a gripping fictional account of the dangerous journey of a teenage boy, Ahmed, who travels from Afghanistan, across the Middle East and Europe, to seek refuge in England.Author Henry Cockburn lives at one end of a long trail stretching from Afghanistan to the southeast coast of England. His home in Kent is close to where small, frail boats arrive bringing refugees on the last lap of their 6,000-mile journey from Kabul and the Hindu Kush. Meeting and talking with refugees, Henry became aware that even they themselves rarely understand the heroic nature of their odyssey. The journey's never-ending risks have become second nature to them. For most other people, they are simply unknown. Correcting such misperceptions is one of the objectives of this powerful story.Written in the form of an epic poem and richly illustrated by the author, Tale of Ahmed describes how its eponymous hero gets help from fellow travelers and finds unexpected friends along the way. But Ahmed is also exploited for money by crooks and cheats, as well as targeted as a pariah. This unusual and unputdownable fable recounts with great sensitivity the Afghans' sufferings and their courage and resilience in making a grueling passage.

A bluebird provides solace and a special wish for former refugee Ali as he learns to embrace a different definition of home. From the author of The Library Bus and A Sky-Blue Bench.

Die Publikation stellt den Hongkonger Philosophen Lao Sze-kwang (1927-2012) anhand seiner kulturtheoretischen Schriften und mit Blick auf seine Positionierung liberaler Werte vor. Lao gehörte zu jenen akademischen Philosophen, die ab den 1950er Jahren auch am öffentlichen Diskurs teilnahmen, sowohl das koloniale Umfeld als auch den Kalten Krieg kritisch beleuchteten und vor einer Ideologisierung durch die Kommunistische Partei in der Volksrepublik China und durch die Nationale Volkspartei in Taiwan warnten. Laos Rezeption zeitgenössischer Philosophen wie F. A. Hayek und E. Cassirer, aber auch seine Analysen von G. W. F. Hegel und I. Kant zielen dabei nicht zuletzt auf eine philosophische Neuinterpretation klassischer konfuzianischer Werte. Honkong kommt dabei entgegen einer häufig vorschnell zugeschriebenen, marginalen Rolle im historischen Weltgeschehen die Funktion zu, negative Folgen und positive Möglichkeiten einer globalen Moderne zu bündeln. Die Publikation richtet sich an ein Publikum, das Einblicke in die Neuinterpretation vormoderner konfuzianischer Texte, die Rezeption philosophischer Thesen im chinesischen Sprachraum, sowie die Entstehung liberaler Standpunkte in Hongkong aufgrund der Schriften Lao Sze-kwangs gewinnen möchte.

The incredible story of a breathtaking rescue in the frenzied final hours of the US evacuation of Afghanistan - and how a brave Afghan mother and a compassionate American officer engineered a daring escape. When the US began its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Afghan army instantly collapsed, Homeira Qaderi was marked for death at the hands of the Taliban. A celebrated author, academic, and champion for women's liberation, Homeira had achieved celebrity in her home country by winning custody of her son in a contentious divorce, a rarity in Afghanistan's patriarchal society. Despite her fierce determination to stay in her homeland, it finally became clear to Homeira that escaping was the only way she and her family would survive. However, like so many, she was mired in the chaos that ensued at Kabul Airport, struggling to get on a plane with her eight-year-old son, Siawash, along with her parents and the rest of their family.  Meanwhile, a young US foreign service officer, Sam Aronson, who had volunteered to help rescue the more than 100,000 Americans and their Afghan helpers stranded in Kabul, learned that the CIA had established a secret entrance into Kabul Airport two miles away from the desperate crowds crushing toward the gates. He started bringing families directly through, and on the very last day of the evacuation, Sam was contacted by Homeira's literary agent, who persuaded him to help Homeira get out.  The story that follows is unbelievable but true. Zuckoff's firsthand accounts come exclusively and directly from Homeira, Aronson, and Homeira's literary agent. The Secret Gate is beyond riveting, and will keep readers on the edge of their seats.