The author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (a finalist for the National Book Award) now gives us the startling, behind-the-scenes story of the struggle between President Obama and the military to remake Afghanistan. In this extraordinarily insightful, illuminating book, Rajiv Chandrasekaran focuses on southern Afghanistan in the year of Obama's surge, and reveals the epic tug of war that occurred between the president and a military that, once on the ground, increasingly went its own way. This political battle's profound ramifications for the region and the world are laid bare through a cast of fascinating characters--disillusioned and inept diplomats, frustrated soldiers, headstrong officers--who played a part in the process of pumping American money and soldiers into Afghan nation-building. What emerges is a detailed picture of unsavory compromise--warlords who were to be marginalized suddenly embraced, the Karzai family transformed from foe to friend, fighting corruption no longer a top priority--and a venture that has become unsustainable in every way: politically, financially, and strategically.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran Books
Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an Indian-American journalist and assistant managing editor for continuous news at The Washington Post. His work often focuses on deep dives into complex political and social issues shaping the global landscape. Chandrasekaran's reporting style is marked by insightful analysis and the ability to present intricate subjects in a clear and compelling manner.
In its original edition Imperial Life in the Emerald City won the prestigious BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Galaxy British Book Award for Newcomer of the Year and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest
"The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran takes us with him into the Zone: into a bubble, cut off from wartime realities, where the task of reconstructing a devastated nation competed with the distractions of a Little America." "Drawing on hundreds of interviews and internal documents, Chandrasekaran tells the story of the people and ideas that inhabited the Green Zone during the occupation, from the imperial viceroy L. Paul Bremer III to the fleet of twentysomethings hired to implement the idea that Americans could build a Jeffersonian democracy in an embattled Middle Eastern country."--Jacket.
Podkladem knihy jsou reportáže, rozhovory a vlastní zážitky dopisovatele Washington Post, který v Bagdádu žil téměř nepřetržitě od listopadu 2002 až do 30. září 2004. Poznal tedy tuto zemi jak před, tak i po útoku koaličních sil, kdy sídlo svrženého Saddáma Husajna obsadili pracovníci vyslaní koaličními státy s úkolem zajistit poválečnou obnovu země, která se měla stát vzorovým kapitalistickým státem pro ostatní arabské země. Tato publikace se stala předlohou filmu Zelená zóna s Mattem Damonem v hlavní roli.