Tales of EUkraine
Tales of EUkraine (TEUk) will bring books to Ukrainian children refugees while helping the Ukrainian publishing sector with the support of the European Commission
View Rights PortalYour Search Results
-
Trusted Partner
-
Talcott Notch Literary Services
Founded in 2002, Talcott Notch Literary is a five-member, full-service literary agency representing the freshest voices in both adult and juvenile fiction and nonfiction. With an impressive list of New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and #1 Amazon bestsellers as well as a vast array of award-winning fiction and nonfiction, our agents proudly represent the newest rising stars and acclaimed established authors.
View Rights Portal
-
Promoted Content
June 2025Proxy war in Afghanistan
The politics of state-wrecking
by Abbas Farasoo
This book provides a compelling analysis of proxy warfare and its far-reaching implications for statehood, focusing on the conflict in Afghanistan. Introducing the innovative concept of "state-wrecking," it bridges theory and practice to unravel how external support for insurgent actors fuels violence, undermines territorial control and sovereignty, intensifies violence, and dismantles political legitimacy. The work shifts the discourse on proxy wars from the strategies of global powers to the procedural and structural impacts within target states. Grounded in rigorous empirical research, including interviews, archival data, and conflict analysis, the book critically examines the Pakistan-Taliban nexus and the limitations of US-led interventions. By blending a robust theoretical framework with in-depth case studies, it reveals how proxy dynamics shape conflicts, disrupt governance, and challenge international security. This is an essential resource for those seeking to understand the entanglements of modern warfare and the fragility of states under external influence.
-
Promoted Content
November 2001In den Schluchten der Taliban
Erfahrungen eines britischen Elitesoldaten in geheimer Mission
by Carew, Tom
-
Trusted Partner
September 2022Malala Yousafzai
Little People, Big Dreams. Deutsche Ausgabe | Kinderbuch ab 4 Jahre
by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara, Manal Mirza, Silke Kleemann
Malalas Vater war Lehrer und sorgte dafür, dass seine Tochter, genau wie ihr Bruder, zur Schule gehen konnte. Als Malala zehn Jahre alt war, übernahmen die Taliban in ihrer Heimatregion die Macht. Sie zerstörten alle Mädchenschulen. Im pakistanischen Fernsehen prangert die Elfjährige die Taliban an. Es sei ein Verbrechen, Mädchen den Schulbesuch zu verwehren. Daraufhin wird sie angeschossen und schwer verwundet. Mit 17 Jahren bekommt sie den Friedensnobelpreis. In ihrer Rede sagt sie: »Ich stehe hier für 66 Millionen Mädchen auf der ganzen Welt, denen man die Bildung verweigert.« Little People, Big Dreams erzählt von den beeindruckenden Lebensgeschichten großer Menschen: Jede dieser Persönlichkeiten, ob Philosophin, Forscherin oder Sportler, hat Unvorstellbares erreicht. Dabei begann alles, als sie noch klein waren: mit großen Träumen.
-
Trusted Partner
August 2022Am Ende der Straße
Afghanistan zwischen Hoffnung und Scheitern. Eine Reportage | Mit zahlreichen Schwarz-Weiß-Fotografien vom Hindukusch | Auf der WELT-Bestenliste
by Wolfgang Bauer
Die afghanische Ring Road. Eine Straße, die real existiert und dennoch ein Mysterium ist. Der 2200 Kilometer lange kreisförmige Highway verbindet die wichtigsten Städte des Landes. Er versprach Einheit und Aufschwung. Seit sechzig Jahren wird an ihm gebaut, doch fertig ist er noch immer nicht. Korruption und Misswirtschaft haben riesige Summen verschlungen. Nach dem Einmarsch der westlichen Truppen wurde die Straße zu einem blutigen Schlachtfeld. Kaum ein deutscher Journalist kennt Afghanistan so gut wie Wolfgang Bauer. Der Zeit-Reporter war viele Male vor Ort, machte die Schicksale der Menschen in preisgekrönten Reportagen anschaulich. Früh warnte er vor einer Rückkehr der Taliban. Im August 2021 wurde einer seiner engsten Mitarbeiter ermordet. Nach dem Fall Kabuls kehrt Wolfgang Bauer noch einmal zurück. Er bereist die Ring Road, sucht Orte auf, die er in den letzten 20 Jahren besucht hat – und geht der Frage nach: Warum ist der Westen in Afghanistan gescheitert? Was hat dieses Scheitern mit der milliardenschweren Entwicklungshilfe zu tun? Und wie geht es weiter? Seine Reportage ist eine Parabel über Hoffnung und Scheitern am Hindukusch.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionJanuary 2015Talking with the Taliban
Should the Afghan Constitution Be a Point of Negotiation?
by Sean Kane
Drawing on the comparative experiences of governments negotiating with insurgencies in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Colombia, as well as a detailed examination of the Taliban’s possible constitutional demands, this report examines the 2004 Afghan constitution with respect to its potential inclusion in peace talks between government and Taliban leaders. It argues that, if the issue is handled carefully and with strategic intent, the Afghan government may be able to seize the political high ground by challenging the Taliban to justify some of its more unpopular constitutional positions to other Afghans.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionAugust 2009
How Opium Profits the Taliban
by Gretchen Peters
In Afghanistan's poppy-rich south and southwest, a raging insurgency intersects a thriving opium trade. A new USIP report, How Opium Profits the Taliban, examines who are the main beneficiaries of the opium trade, how traffickers influence the Taliban insurgency as well as the politics of the region, and considers the extent to which narcotics are changing the nature of the insurgency itself.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionFebruary 2014
The Taliban and the 2014 Elections in Afghanistan
by Antonio Giustozzi
This report examines the current debate within the Taliban movement about how to approach the 2014 national elections in Afghanistan. It charts the position of the various groupings within the Taliban and how they have interacted both with each other and with interlocutors outside the Taliban. This study, funded by the United States Institute of Peace, draws on extensive interviews conducted in Afghanistan in the spring of 2013 with various Taliban leaders, cadres, commanders, fighters, and community elders.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionOctober 2010
Dangerous Liaisons with the Afghan Taliban
The Feasibility and Risks of Negotiations
by Matt Waldman
This report is based on six months of field research between January and June 2010, funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace and Canadian Global Peace and Security Fund. The research involved separate, in-depth interviews with eighty individuals, mainly in Kabul and Kandahar, including fourteen insurgents, as well as former Taliban officials, diplomats, analysts, community and tribal leaders, and civil society representatives. It also involved forty interviews and ten focus groups with ordinary Afghans. To encourage frankness, and for safety reasons, most interviews were nonattributable. The aim was to better understand insurgent motivations and objectives, and in light of this, to assess the feasibility, risks, and implications of negotiations. The field research, which focused on the core Quetta Shura–led Taliban, faced constraints of access, verification, and insurgent differentiation. The findings should therefore be seen as a step toward understanding the movement, rather than anything more complete.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionDecember 2014
Violence, the Taliban, and Afghanistan's 2014 Elections
by Antonio Giustozzi, Silab Mangal
The controversial 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan has yielded several instant narratives that together paint a hugely confusing picture of what actually happened—its political effect in the second-round results, the deal brokered by U.S. secretary of state John Kerry, and the initiation of a technically and logistically complex audit. In the end, the election proved a contest of narratives as well as a contest of votes. The Taliban’s involvement in the process and how it is emerging in the wake of the vote are significant to the future of Afghanistan. Is ethnicity becoming as consequential as ideology? Is the Taliban moving closer to mainstream Afghan politics? Is becoming more pragmatic than idealistic, more peaceful and less violent? Or is it Afghan politics that is moving closer to the Taliban and armed politics? This report explores the Taliban’s telling lack of any accepted overall leadership, its loose federative structure, its splintering into three primary and often divergent divisions, its internal debates regarding the election, and its possible negotiations with the new government in Kabul.
-
CricketJanuary 2015Second XI
Cricket In Its Outposts
by Tim Wigmore, Peter Miller, Gideon Haigh, Sahil Dutta and Tim Brooks
As the world's second most popular sport, cricket is much richer and more diverse than many realise. Globally, passionate players give up holidays, time with loved ones and hard-earned money to achieve the extraordinary and play for their country. Afghanistan, whose captain grew up on a refugee camp, will play in the 2015 World Cup not just in spite of the Taliban but partly because of them. In Ireland, cricket has reawakened after a century of dormancy - but can they achieve their aim of Test cricket and end the player drain to England? These tales resonate far beyond cricket, touching on war, sectarianism and even women's rights. This book explains why an Emirati faced Allan Donald armed only with a sunhat; whether cricket will succeed in China and America; what happened when Kenya reached the World Cup semi-finals, and how cricket in the Netherlands almost collapsed after two bad days.
-
Over the Mountains and over the Sea
by Dirk Reinhardt
Every year in spring, the nomads stop by Soraya's village on their way to their summer home in the Afghan mountains. Accompanying them is Tarek, who knows sheep better than anyone else and is a wonderful storyteller. But this year Soraya waits for him in vain. According to an old tradition, as the seventh daughter in her family, she was raised as a boy and was able to move freely and attend school. But as a 14-year-old, she has reached the age where she should be living as a girl again in the quiet of her home. In fact the Taliban has, in no uncertain terms, mandated that she do so. They have also threatened Tarek and expect him to put his excellent animal tracking abilities to work for them. The nomads' plight worsens dramatically. Tarek and Soraya can see no other way and each journey out into the world, without knowing where the other is or what they're doing. Unexpectedly, they cross paths in the mountains.
-
Autobiography: historical, political & militaryFebruary 2012Fahim Speaks
A Warrior-Actor's Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back
by Fahim Fazli with Michael Moffett
Fahim Fazli is a man of two worlds: Afghanistan, the country of his birth, and America, the nation he adopted and learned to love. He's also a man who escaped oppression, found his dream profession, and then paid it all forward by returning to Afghanistan as an interpreter with the U.S. Marines. When Fahim speaks, the story he tells is harrowing, fascinating, and inspiring. Born and raised in Kabul, Fahim saw his country and family torn apart by revolution and civil war. Dodging Afghan authorities and informers with his father and brother, Fahim made his way across the border to Pakistan and then to America. After reuniting with his mother, sisters, and another brother, he moved to California with dreams of an acting career. After 15 turbulent years that included two unsuccessful arranged marriages to Afghan brides, he finally qualified for membership in the Screen Actors Guild-and found true American love. Though Fahim's California life was happy and rewarding, he kept thinking about the battlefields of Afghanistan. Haunted by a desire to serve his adopted country, he became a combat linguist. While other interpreters opted for safe assignments, Fahim chose one of the most dangerous: working with the Leathernecks in embattled Helmand Province, where his outgoing personality and deep cultural understanding made him a favorite of both Marines and local Afghans-and a pariah to the Taliban, who put a price on his head. Fahim Speaks is an inspiring story of perseverance and patriotism-and of the special love that one man developed for his adopted country. A gold medal winner from the Military Writers Society of America
-
October 2020The Night Letters
by Denise Leith
For five years, Australian doctor Sofia Raso has lived in Kabul’s vibrant Shaahir Square, working with Dr Jabril Aziz to support the local women. She knows that living peacefully in Kabul requires following two simple rules: keep a low profile; and keep out of local affairs. Yet when threatening night letters from the Taliban taunt the town, and young boys disappear from Jamal Mina, Kabul’s largest slum, Sofia can no longer remain silent. While the square is encased by fear, an elegant former warlord proves an unlikely ally, and a former lover re-emerges with a warning. As the search for the boys intensifies, and Sofia feels herself being drawn back into a love affair she thought had ended, it soon becomes clear that answers will bring a heavy price. Gripping and evocative, The Night Letters takes you to the heart of Kabul in a story of secrets, friendship and love in all its imperfect guises.
-
Sophia
by Masoumeh Kazemi
After the end of the celebration, the dinner tablecloth is spread out. Pamir is unwilling to eat as usual. He eats a few reluctant bites, leaves the table sooner than others, and goes to the room. He lights up his cigarette and sits on a chair by the window. He fixes his eyes on a faint star flickering in the corner of the sky. The nostalgic grief that the star shoulders is felt and heard as much as its remoteness. It leaves a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, bitterer than the thick cigarette smoke circling his head, bringing his loneliness's in Kabul’s Darulamann in a straitjacket right before his eyes, in a dilapidated house with most of its rooms in a state of severe disrepair and uninhabited. He lit up his first cigarette right at the time the pain of love was running to his bones. Moreover, for fear of losing, being forgotten, and cheated, he counted stars all his nights. “I don’t understand why I have this feeling for you . . .”Sophia is the name of one of the three main characters in the story. The sad story of Sophia and why she and her husband resorted to illegal immigration is the reality of the lives of thousands of Afghan men and women who have been grappling with countless accidents and disturbances for the past forty years. The story is written in the romantic-social genre, narrated through two (dramatic and fictional) timelines. The Baran character in the story’s dramatic timeline is the same young Sophia of the novel’s fictional timeline. After living in Germany for 20 years, Baran (Sophia) spends the last days of her life in a nursing home. She is forty-eight and suffers from brain cancer. Her adopted son, Ahura, is her only delight that had survived the ravages of time. He is a physician doctor and works in a hospital where Baran would eventually land. Ahura addresses Baran as a mom. Ahura’s childhood is included in detail in the novel’s fictional timeline. He is the son of Mahrokh (one of the three main characters in the story). There is a great secret in Ahura’s life that he himself is not aware. According to Mahrokh’s will, Baran took custody of Ahura after her death and invited him to Germany. Ahura’s mistress is a girl named Mandegar who works as a nurse in a hospital. The madness that brought Ahura to his knees out of this gray love often evokes the past in Baran’s mind. Years ago, not too long after Baran arrived in Germany and right after he was released from the lunatic asylum, he began writing his memoirs. His memoirs narrate the fictional timeline of the novel.Afghanistan’s civil war between the country’s ethnic and political sects hit the nail of the Taliban terrorist regime in 1996 on the head of an unfortunate population. This marked another beginning for people to flee over the borders.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionApril 2015
Education and Attitudes in Pakistan
Understanding Perceptions of Terrorism
by Madiha Afzal
Why do Pakistanis continue to hold a skewed assessment of the Taliban threat to their country? What underlies their attitudes toward the Taliban, the United States, India, and religious minorities? This report draws on author interviews and fieldwork undertaken in Punjab in 2013 and 2014 as well as on a detailed curriculum and textbook study to identify and trace the roots of these attitudes and suggest ways out of the dilemma for Pakistan’s policymakers.
-
Afghanistan
A Cultural and Political History
by Thomas Barfield
An "impressive" history of Afghanistan (New York Times Book Review), from the Mughal Empire to the TalibanAfghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily.Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionSeptember 2011
Designing a Comprehensive Peace Process for Afghanistan
by Lisa Schirch
In June 2011, Afghan president Hamid Karzai revealed publicly for the first time that the United States and the Taliban have been holding secret negotiations. To date, these negotiations have focused on a narrow agenda on conditions for the Taliban to lay down their arms and for the United States to leave Afghanistan— and do not address other significant root causes of the current conflict, such as government corruption and ethnic tensions. Thus, they will be unlikely to lay the foundation for a sustainable peace. This report argues that a comprehensive peace process in Afghanistan requires a much more deliberate design than currently exists, calls attention to Afghan civil society’s capacity to support a national peace process, and offers recommendations to the international community, the Afghan government, and Afghan civil society for ensuring a more comprehensive, successful, and sustainable peace process.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionJune 2017
Industrial-Scale Looting of Afghanistan's Mineral Resources
by William A. Byrd, Javed Noorani
The large-scale, open looting of Afghanistan’s mineral resources has burgeoned over the past decade, adversely affecting the coffers and stability of the national government. Such looting strengthens and entrenches warlords, corrupts the government and undermines governance, partly funds the Taliban and reportedly ISIS as well, and fuels both local conflicts and the wider insurgency.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionJune 2013
A New Approach to Understanding Afghanistan's Transition
Comparisons with International Postconflict Experience
by William A. Byrd, Gary Milante, Kenneth Anye
Following uneven progress since the downfall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan faces its upcoming security and political transition with an encouraging economic performance but serious governance challenges. This report systematically compares Afghanistan’s experience with those of other countries that have emerged from conflict to bring out patterns and possible lessons that can inform thinking, analysis, and policy for Afghanistan’s current transition and beyond.
-
Peace studies & conflict resolutionAugust 2015
Afghanistan's Fourth Estate
Independent Media
by Ann J. Procter
Afghanistan’s media have evolved at warp speed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, yet being a journalist remains an extremely dangerous occupation, as many have been killed and still more threatened with violence if they persist in their work. The growth of Afghanistan’s democracy depends on a functioning media. This report examines the situation and offers paths forward to making Afghanistan safer for journalism.
