War at the Top of the World: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet

Overview

In War at the Top of the World, veteran foreign correspondent Eric Margolis presents a revelatory history of the complicated and volatile conflicts that entangle one of the most beautiful and remote parts of the world.
In 1998, India and Pakistan conducted nuclear tests that shocked the world and by the spring of 1999, both had demonstrated medium-range missiles capable of mutual destruction. Now, in War on the Top of the World Margolis plays witness to the escalating conflict between them over the isolated and contested territories of Kashmir and Ladakh, an age-old dispute that threatens to transform their arms race from a regional concern to an alarming global crisis. He traces this struggle and others, like those in neighbouring Afghanistan and Tibet, back to their Cold War roots, exploring clashes that continue to threaten to destabilize the region today.
Margolis combines vivid first-hand accounts as a war correspondent with an historical and strategic overview of the region to take the reader through the geopolitical complexities of the area and its key players. He offers a clear, concise analysis of a complicated and little-understood part of the world that is home to a quarter of the world''s population. Fascinating and indispensable, War on the Top of the World is an extraordinary read for anyone interested in the current global balance of power.

Editorial Reviews

Beginning with the premise that South Asia is one of the most combustible regions on the planet (a 1993 CIA study rated Kashmir as the most likely place for a nuclear war to begin), veteran foreign correspondent Margolis goes poking around the region, wondering where the spark will originate, discussing Afghanistan (especially the heavy American and Pakistani involvement in the area), the border conflicts in Kashmir and Siachen between India and Pakistan, and China's occupation of Tibet, which he sees as a model for how China might come into bloody conflict with India. The book is good on military issues and useful as a primer for the uninitiated, especially on the way that British, American and Russian policies have fueled the arms and territory battles in Afghanistan and on what India's and Pakistan's battling has cost them in lost social and economic development. But the author's fondness for generalities and potted psychologizing can be wearying: Muslim Kashmiris are "a haughty lot," Sikhs are known for their "love of revenge," the leaders of the Afghan Army suffer from a "deficit in human talent that afflicts so many backward societies." Margolis even devotes a page to the proposition that Hindu anti-Muslim sentiment is partly due to Hindus feeling sexually inferior to Muslims since Islam "encourages a robust sex life" and some Indians believe that Muslims are better lovers because they are circumcised. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Eric Margolis

Eric Margolis is a sociologist and Assistant Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the Arizona State University College of Education.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Taylor & Francis

Filesize

498.80 KB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780203011560