The Comrades and the Mullahs: China, Afghanistan and the New Asian Geopolitics

Author: Johny, Stanly

Number Of Pages: 304

Release Date: 08-03-2022

Details: Product Description "The withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan has left a lasting impact on both Afghanistan’s future and on Asian geopolitics. It has also brought China into focus. This book traces the emergence of China as a key player in Afghanistan and the evolution of China’s Afghan policy especially with respect to its relations with the Taliban. Beijing's dominant role in Afghanistan’s future is a potentially game-changing development in Asian geopolitics, even if questions remain about the former's appetite to step in to fill the void and the limits of its ambitions. In The Comrades and the Mullahs, Ananth Krishnan and Stanly Johny examine what Beijing’s interests are and the drivers of its foreign policy, and, more specifically, how its new Silk Road project―the Belt and Road Initiative―is shaping China–Afghan relations. They look at how Afghanistan has emerged as a key point on the corridor heading west from Xinjiang, and discuss the Xinjiang factor, drawing on their travels to China’s western frontiers, as well as the internal dynamics that are pushing Beijing’s westward march. Another factor is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the terror groups that are leading to an increasingly securitized approach to China’s western regions and beyond, including possible Chinese plans to deploy special forces along the China–Afghan border areas in the Wakhan corridor and Badakhshan region. China’s Afghan engagement has also deepened its ‘all-weather’ alliance with Pakistan―with Beijing increasingly leaning on Islamabad, particularly in its outreach to the Taliban and other elements in Afghanistan that have long been supported by the Pakistani state―and is a perennial source of tension between Islamabad and Kabul. The authors show how this increasing closeness is alarming for India, and might have far-reaching consequences, especially in Kashmir." About the Author "Ananth Krishnan is the China correspondent for The Hindu and is currently based in Hong Kong. In 2019, he was a visiting fellow at Brookings India. He was previously the Beijing-based associate editor at the India Today Group. He has reported from China for close to a decade and his reporting has taken him to all but three of China's thirty-three provinces and regions. He is the author of India’s China Challenge (2020). Stanly Johny is the international affairs editor with The Hindu. A PhD in international studies from the Centre for West Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has been writing on international affairs and Indian foreign policy in The Hindu Group publications for nearly a decade. An IVLP fellow of the US State Department and an India–Australia Youth Dialogue alumnus, he has also contributed to think-tanks such as the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, and the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. He is the author of The ISIS Caliphate: From Syria to the Doorsteps of India (2018)."

EAN: 9789354895210

Model: 18098

Languages: english

Binding: Hardcover

Item Condition: New