The Reporter And The Warlords

Download or read book The Reporter and the Warlords written by Craig Collie and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2013 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Full of intrigue and swashbuckling adventure, the story of an Australian journalist who was at the heart of the most turbulent period in Chinese history Set against the turbulent background of China in the first half of the 20th Century, this reads like a romantic novel--but it's a true story. The reporter is the intrepid Australian journalist, Will Donald, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1903 and by 1908 was managing editor of the China Mail. As a freelance journalist based in Shanghai, Donald then became advisor to a number of influential public figures, including Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek, entangling himself in their power struggles. He participated in the armed struggle to overthrow the last emperor of China and then wrote proclamations for Sun Yat-Sen, who ultimately became Provisional President of the Republic of China. Will Donald's most intriguing alliance was with the swashbuckling Manchurian warlord and morphine-addicted womanizer, Zhang Xueliang. The lives of these two extraordinary men became entwined over the decades and provide a compelling narrative. The role of both Australian and American advisors in these events has a particularly modern resonance.

Download or read book Swimming with Warlords written by Kevin Sites and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The veteran journalist and author of In the Hot Zone and The Things They Cannot Say explores the impact of more than a decade of war on Afghanistan, from the American invasion after 9/11 to today, and offers insights into its future and the possible consequences for the U.S. Kevin Sites made his first trip to Afghanistan in October 2001, staying 100 days to cover the U.S. invasion for NBC News. On his fifth trip to the country in June 2013, Sites retraced that first odyssey, contemplating the significant events of his original trip to explore what, if anything, has changed. He interviewed warlords, ex-Taliban fighters, politicians, women cops and dentists, farmers, drug addicts, international aid workers, diplomats, and military personnel. In Swimming with Warlords, Sites examines Afghanistan today through the prism of those two parallel journeys, exploring that nation’s past and considering its future in light of the drawdown of U.S. troops. As he tells the stories of the people he met—how they have been affected by this conflict that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives—Sites provides a fresh perspective on Afghanistan and America’s role there. Swimming with Warlords contains 30 black-and-white photos throughout.

Download or read book Warlords of Crime written by Gerald L. Posner and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 1990 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the illegal drug crisis reaching epidemic proportions, here is an illuminating and disturbing account of a relentless new criminal organization which has muscled aside the Mafia and dominates the multibillion dollar world heroin trade.

Download or read book Chienne de Guerre written by Anne Nivat and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2009-02-23 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two years ago, when she was thirty years old, Anne Nivat decided to see first-hand what war was all about. Russia had just launched its second brutal campaign against Chechnya. And though the Russians strictly forbade Westerners from covering the war, the aspiring French journalist decided she would go. There are two very real dangers in Chechnya: being arrested by the Russians and being kidnapped by the Chechens. Nivat strapped her satellite phone to her belly, disguised herself in the garb of a Chechen peasant, and sneaked across the border. She found a young guide, Islam, to lead her illegally through the war zone. For six months they followed the war, travelling with underground rebels and sleeping with Chechen families or in abandoned buildings. Anne trembled through air raids; walked through abandoned killing fields; and helped in the halls of bloody hospitals. She interviewed rebel leaders, government officials, young widows, and angry fighters, and she reported everything back to France. Her reports in Lib'ration led to antiwar demonstrations outside the Russian embassy in Paris. Anne's words move. They are not florid, but terse, cool, dramatic. More than just a war correspondent's report, Chienne de Guerre is a moving story of struggle and self-discovery -- the adventures of one young woman who repeatedly tests her own physical and psychological limits in the extremely dangerous and stressful environment of war.

Download or read book The Taliban Shuffle written by Kim Barker and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A true-life Catch-22 set in the deeply dysfunctional countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, by one of the region’s longest-serving correspondents. Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job. When Barker arrives in Kabul, foreign aid is at a record low, electricity is a pipe dream, and of the few remaining foreign troops, some aren’t allowed out after dark. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban is regrouping as the Afghan and Pakistani governments floun­der. Barker watches Afghan police recruits make a travesty of practice drills and observes the disorienting turnover of diplomatic staff. She is pursued romantically by the former prime minister of Pakistan and sees adrenaline-fueled col­leagues disappear into the clutches of the Taliban. And as her love for these hapless countries grows, her hopes for their stability and security fade. Swift, funny, and wholly original, The Taliban Shuffle unforgettably captures the absurdities and tragedies of life in a war zone.

Download or read book Crafting Peace written by Sasha Lezhnev and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crafting Peace analyzes warlords in depth, including their organizational structure and the context in which they operate, ultimately exploring the effectiveness of various short and long-term strategies to deal with warlords. Instead of focusing strictly on economic causes, the focus here is on the extremely frail politial/security environment that allows warlords to rise up, seize power, and profit in the midst of chaos. This deeper political context, under-analyzed in other texts in terms of its effect on warlordism, is crucial to understanding both why warlords arise and how they should be dealt with. This book suggests a two-pronged strategic approach to help craft peace: unseating certain intransigent warlords through immediate, coercive measures; and taking away the anarchic environment in which these actors thrive by implementing several policies aimed at rebuilding law and order over the long-term. Sasha Lezhnev discusses this approach by looking at real-world cases in Sierra Leone and Tajikistan. Crafting Peace presents a new way of looking at eliminating warlords and restoring peace in war-torn states that will prove essential to both scholars and practitioners in international relations and political science.

Download or read book Killing the Cranes written by Edward Girardet and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-08 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward Girardet discusses his experiences as a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan over the last thirty years, including the Soviet invasion, the Taliban gaining control, the American occupation, and interviews with such people as Osama bin Laden, Islamist extremist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and Ahmed Shah Massoud.