Looking For The Enemy

Bette Dam spent years in Afghanistan reporting on a figure most published accounts described without ever meeting anyone who knew him. Her investigation into Mullah Omar and the movement he founded rests on fieldwork and interviews rather than on official briefings, and it questions a good deal of what became accepted knowledge about the Taliban's origins and leadership. The book reconstructs events with close attention to sources, setting political history beside the lives of people caught up in it, and it explains the regional background that shaped the conflict. The method is journalistic throughout: claims are traced back to whoever made them and why. What makes it useful: • Years of field reporting and interviews inside Afghanistan • A reassessment of widely repeated accounts of the Taliban's founding • Political and regional history set alongside individual testimony • Sourcing made visible so readers can weigh the evidence Relevant to students of international politics, journalists, researchers and readers following South Asian affairs, from Boipoka.