A review by zezozose_zadfrack_glutz
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

5.0

This was a very interesting perspective on the Taliban because it was written and published around 2000-early 2001, giving a survey of Central Asian geopolitics that probably hasn't been analyzed in quite the same way since September 11. This book has left me wanting to read more on the history of Pakistan and the ISI, because it introduces so many niche issues, such as the Pakistani trucking cartel and its relationship to the Taliban, or simply the depth of Pakistani involvement in the propping up of the Taliban as a convenient political force in the region. If you learned everything you know about Central Asia after and through the lens of 9/11, this book will really help put the Taliban in a regional and historical context that makes sense. And yet it upends previous assumptions I had, such as just how linear the relationship between the Afghan mujahideen and the Taliban was. Quite a good book, well written and it really helps me trace the origin points for political phenomena in the region that before had me flummoxed.