Sir Martin Ewans – författare

Sir Martin Ewans, former Head of the British Chancery in Kabul, puts into an historical and contemporary context the series of tragic events that have impinged on Afghanistan in the past fifty years. The book examines the roots of these developments in Afghanistan's earlier history and external relationships, as well as their contemporary relevance, internally, regionally, and globally. The book also reviews in details the emergence of the Taliban, their ideology and their place within Islam, and examines Afghanistan's relevance in global issues, notably the nature of Islamic extremism, the international drugs trade and international terrorism. It ends with an analysis of the country post-Taliban.

The Great Game: Britain and Russia in Central Asia is a collection of key works written in the course of the nineteenth century, when Central Asia was the focus of a political and diplomatic confrontation between Britain and Russia.While the confrontation lasted, commentators on both sides wrote voluminously about their perceptions of the opposing threat. Soldiers and other adventurers also traversed the region, to gather intelligence and engage with local rulers, and their accounts of their travels are an important part of the picture. Official documents are also a vital source of insights into the private perceptions of both governments. In selecting items for this collection, the aim has been to include those that are both important in themselves and representative of others of a similar type. There were, for example, a large number of British writers who expatiated at length on the Russian threat, and it would be superfluous to include other than those whose works were of a seminal nature.The era of the 'Great Game' divides itself conveniently into three parts. The first stretched from the early years of the century to the disastrous intervention in Afghanistan which is known as the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1939-42. The second spanned the period between that conflict and the Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878-80, while the third terminated with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907, which effectively marked the end of the confrontation.

Sir Martin Ewans, former Head of the British Chancery in Kabul, puts into an historical and contemporary context the series of tragic events that have impinged on Afghanistan in the past fifty years. The book examines the roots of these developments in Afghanistan's earlier history and external relationships, as well as their contemporary relevance, internally, regionally, and globally. The book also reviews in details the emergence of the Taliban, their ideology and their place within Islam, and examines Afghanistan's relevance in global issues, notably the nature of Islamic extremism, the international drugs trade and international terrorism. It ends with an analysis of the country post-Taliban.

There is a broad consensus among those who are concerned with Africa that the plight of the continent is approaching the catastrophic. Partly the roots of the problem are historical, stemming from the exploitation and colonisation of the continent by European powers. An appreciation of the history of the relationship between Europe and Africa, a major episode of which this book examines, is indispensable to an understanding of the continent's present predicament. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries King Leopold II of the Belgians established a colony in Africa, which, as the Congo Free State, became a byword for unremitting exploitation and widespread atrocities. This book describes the creation, the development and the collapse both of this regime and of the Belgian colony that replaced it. Conclusions are drawn about the nature of European colonialism in Africa and the consequences for Europe itself.