Books

Foreword: Richard Falk

This book sheds light on modern populism and discusses the link between populism and identity politics against the backdrop of populist leaders asserting the identity of their own group, while maintaining the separation from others.

Written by former BBC correspondent and commentator Deepak Tripathi, the book explains how populism has a long history with early discernable origins in the Tsarist Russian Empire and North America in the nineteenth century, spreading to Latin America, Europe, and elsewhere in the following century. The book analyzes various forms of populism, its causes and consequences. It further looks at how industrialization, economic growth, and movement of people led to conditions which contributed to inequalities, fueling populist sentiments and social conflict around the globe. Tripathi concludes that populism has moved from the fringes to the mainstream of politics, and is here to stay, given factors such as growing competition for resources, population increase, climate change, and migration.

The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science and neighboring disciplines, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of modern populism and its roots.

Chapter 1. Roots of Populism.- Chapter 2. Matter of Definitions.- Chapter 3. North America.- Chapter 4. Latin America.- Chapter 5. Europe.- Chapter 6. Middle East and North Africa.- Chapter 7. South and Southeast Asia.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.

“Written in a graceful, informative style, this book explores the rise of populism on the global scene and exposes its dangers.” Mark Juergensmeyer, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State

“Deepak Tripathi provides the first lucid and comprehensive analysis of a political phenomenon that engulfs many states and societies today.” Ilan Pappe, Professor of History, and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies, University of Exeter

“This wide-ranging and clear-sighted book gives a historically-informed account of how populism went mainstream. It is a fascinating read.” Richard Toye, Professor of Modern History, University of Exeter

Publisher: Springer Nature (2023)
ISBN: 9783031322327
Number of pages: 182

Great powers have often found that military adventurism to force their will in distant lands comes with the risk of spending excessive military, economic, and moral capital to the extent that war is no longer sustainable.

Written by a former BBC Afghanistan correspondent who set up the corporation’s bureau in Kabul in the early 1990s, this book draws both from scholarly knowledge as well as first-hand insights on how the Americans met that fate in Vietnam, and the Soviets and Americans in Afghanistan. America’s 1975 retreat from Vietnam was a consequential event, prompting US commentators to explain it as reluctance to get involved in foreign wars, a mindset described as the Vietnam Syndrome.

As Deepak Tripathi points out, the Vietnam experience made the Americans determined to give the Soviets their own Vietnam. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and retreat after a decade of occupation, represented the revenge America sought. However, President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks was the beginning of a long military venture that ended in retreat in 2021. Addressing an academic as well as a general audience, Tripathi explores parallels between wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam, and shows how the United States and the Soviet Union met the same fate.

Chapter 1. 9/11 Reprisal.- Chapter 2. Overreach.- Chapter 3. War On Terror.- Chapter 4. Afghan War.- Chapter 5. Iraq War.- Chapter 6. Arab Spring.- Chapter 7. Return to Kabul.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.

“Anyone with an interest in world affairs should read Deepak Tripathi’s superb book Afghanistan and the Vietnam Syndrome.” Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of International Law Emeritus, Princeton University, and Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University of London

“An excellent and highly readable overview of imperial overstretch by both the USSR and the United States in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.” Barnett R. Rubin, Distinguished Fellow, Center on International Cooperation, New York University

“Deepak Tripathi’s Afghanistan and the Vietnam Syndrome offers a compelling and comparative argument about the wars in Afghanistan and Vietnam.” Lisa Hajjar, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

“Deepak Tripathi has produced an informed, insightful and wide-ranging study that helps us make sense of the challenges that both the Soviet Union and the United States encountered in Afghanistan’s mountains and on Afghanistan’s plains. No one will fail to benefit from reading it.” William Maley, Emeritus Professor of Diplomacy, Australian National University

Publisher: Springer Nature (HB 2023, PB 2024)
ISBN: 9783031235542
Number of pages: 198

Beginning with the Communist Saur Revolution of 1978 and continuing through Gen. David Petraeus’s 2010 appointment replacing Stanley McChrystal as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, this book is an inside account of one of the most vicious conflicts fought between the two Cold War superpowers: the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-89). Analyzing the behind-the-scenes decisions made in Moscow, Washington, and Kabul, former BBC correspondent Deepak Tripathi shows how that conflict transformed Afghanistan into a sanctuary for terrorism.

Explaining how Afghanistan descended into a civil war from which the Taliban emerged, Tripathi explores the ways in which the country ultimately became a grotesque mirror image of the anticommunist alliance of U.S. forces and radical Islamists in the Cold War’s final phase. Calling for a departure from the current pursuit of military strong-arm tactics, he advocates an approach that is centered on development, internal reconciliation, and societal reconstruction in Afghanistan.

“No one has better explained the making of this situation than Deepak Tripathi in this book. A long-time BBC correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Tripathi not only dealt every day with the tribalism and poppy growing that now rule the Afghans, but has also exploited newly released Russian, British, and U.S. documents to provide a superb, if sometimes terrifying, historical context-including Ronald Reagan’s massive help to those who are now killing American soldiers.” Walter LaFeber, formerly Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor at Cornell University

“Deepak Tripathi’s penetrating analysis of the Afghan tragedy comes at just the right time, when the United States is becoming more deeply embroiled in an impossible situation.” Howard Zinn, professor emeritus, Boston University, and author of A People’s History of the United States

Publisher: Potomac Books (2011)
ISBN: ‎ 9781597975308
Number of pages: 256

The military adventure that George W. Bush embarked on within months of his inauguration in 2001 was to eclipse everything else in his presidency. His name will forever be synonymous with the “war on terror.” What started as a military response to al Qaeda’s attacks in New York and Washington on 9/11, with the goal of neutralizing al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan, quickly fused with the neo-conservative agenda to dominate and reshape the Middle East. Al Qaeda’s terrorism was answered by the terror of American military power, which has destroyed or blighted the lives of millions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.

Deepak Tripathi, a former BBC correspondent who has kept a keen eye on the region for more than three decades, identifies systematically the naive calculations, strategic and operational blunders, disregard for history and for other cultures, and even downright prejudice that have brought so much harm to so many. The legacy of Bush’s foreign policy will take years to overcome, Tripathi argues. His war on terror provoked resentment and violent opposition, opened up sectarian divisions, and created Hobbesian conditions of war of all against all. The long-term price tag for America has been estimated at a colossal $3 trillion, but as Tripathi seeks to demonstrate, the overall cost, in human and economic terms, will be incalculable.

“This book is not for the conservative, Bush-ie camp. It takes a thoughtful look at the legacy of two increasingly unpopular wars, focusing especially on the human toll.” Christopher Schoppa, Political Bookworm in the Washington Post

“Tripathi collates the facts and demonstrates how the Bush administration spent vast sums of money making our world far more dangerous.” Clive Stafford Smith, director, Reprieve, and author of Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay and the Secret Prisons

Publisher: Potomac Books (2010)
ISBN: 9781597975032
Number of pages: 200

From the age of Alexander the Great, waves of foreign armies have invaded the Middle East and South Asia to plunder their vast treasures. In Imperial Designs, Deepak Tripathi offers a powerful and unique analysis of how this volatile region has endured the manipulation and humiliation of such wars. He argues that these foreign invasions to gain access to others’ wealth and the consequent ignominy of the defeated peoples of the Middle East and South Asia have far-reaching consequences.

Over the centuries, again and again, the conquered peoples have been left helpless, their shame on display. The victims’ collective frustration has strengthened their will to resist and avenge the wrongs done to them-all according to their own values and in their own time.

Displaying a keen awareness of Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, Tripathi argues that this enduring theme resonates throughout the region’s history and informs the present. Referring to declassified official documents and scholarly works, Imperial Designs offers an authoritative analysis of Middle Eastern history since the First World War and the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Scholars, policymakers, and concerned citizens should read this book, for it tells us how the shame of defeat radicalises nations and societies, and often makes future conflict inevitable.

“Much we need to learn about the social and psychological consequences of the globalized imperialism of the sort that the United States and its allies perform at unfathomable cost to human dignity and civilized life. Deepak Tripathi’s Imperial Designs is an excellent study in that critical direction. His knowledge of the terrain is vast and detailed, his perspective realist, and his gaze irreducibly humanist.” Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, and author of Post-Orientalism: Knowledge and Power in Time of Terror

“Tripathi’s excellent summation of past events in the Middle East and his cogent analysis of their continuing implications should be required reading for all who are dealing directly with this troubled region, as well as those seeking to understand it and its relations with the United States.” Greta Morris, former US diplomat, review in American Diplomacy

Publisher: Potomac Books (2013)
ISBN: 9781612346243
Number of pages: 208

A Journey Through Turbulence is a collection of Deepak Tripathi’s writings in the last decade, covering a vast landscape and many subjects, from the United States, Britain and the European Union to conflicts in South Asia and the Middle East, the Arab Awakening, the power shift from west to east, and the new great game in the east. Displaying a keen knowledge of the landscape, these essays have an insightful analysis of the present in the context of the past. Dr. Deepak Tripathi, fellow of the Royal Historical Society, is a British historian of the Middle East and South Asia with a particular emphasis on the Cold War and the United States in the post-Soviet world. Dr. Tripathi earned his PhD from Roehampton University in London.

“Tripathi writes with a degree of bite on the important issues of our times, covering the end of the Bush era to the start of Barack Obama’s second term. These essays provide a searing commentary of U.S. foreign policy, and its failings from Iraq to Libya.” Dr. Binoy Kampmark, RMIT University, Melbourne, and formerly Commonwealth Scholar, Selwyn College, Cambridge University

Publisher: Dignity Press (2013)
ISBN: 9781937570323
Paperback: 256 pages