"Long before the official negotiations to end apartheid, there were secret discussions that paved the way for dialogue between the African National Congress and the South African government. Aziz Pahad played a key role in these discussions, and in this book he provides the first account of them from the ANC's perspective. Pahad recounts his early years in South Africa, which informed his political ideology, as well as his time in exile in London. He gives insights into the leadership of inspirational figures, such as Yusuf Dadoo, Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki, and describes the central role played by the ANC in rescuing the country from the brink of disaster. There are also important lessons for governments still resorting to military aggression to resolve conflicts by showing that honesty, mutual understanding and compromise are essential to bringing an end to instability." -- Publisher: http://penguin.bookslive.co.za/blog/2014/09/29/presenting-aziz-pahads-moving-memoir-insurgent-diplomat-civil-talks-or-civil-war/

Long before the official negotiations to end apartheid, there were secret discussions that paved the way for dialogue between the African National Congress and the South African government. Aziz Pahad played a key role in these discussions, and in this book he provides the first account of them from the ANC’s perspective. Pahad recounts his early years in South Africa, which informed his political ideology, as well as his time in exile in London. He gives insights into the leadership of 00inspirational figures, such as Yusuf Dadoo, Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki, and describes the central role played by the ANC in rescuing the country from the brink of disaster. There are also important lessons for governments still resorting to military aggression to resolve conflicts by showing that honesty, mutual understanding and compromise are essential to bringing an end to instability. A moving memoir about a significant historical period, The Insurgent Diplomat draws on the author’s experiences as one of the ANC’s most trusted politicians, who contributed to a free and democratic South Africa.

Long before the official negotiations to end apartheid, there were secret discussions that paved the way for dialogue between the African National Congress and the South African government. Aziz Pahad played a key role in these discussions, and in this book he provides the first account of them from the ANC’s perspective. Pahad recounts his early years in South Africa, which informed his political ideology, as well as his time in exile in London. He gives insights into the leadership of 00inspirational figures, such as Yusuf Dadoo, Oliver Tambo and Thabo Mbeki, and describes the central role played by the ANC in rescuing the country from the brink of disaster. There are also important lessons for governments still resorting to military aggression to resolve conflicts by showing that honesty, mutual understanding and compromise are essential to bringing an end to instability. A moving memoir about a significant historical period, The Insurgent Diplomat draws on the author’s experiences as one of the ANC’s most trusted politicians, who contributed to a free and democratic South Africa.

"Sardonic insights and a lovely pen." Fred Emery, former Executive Editor, The Times, London. "Precht's stories about an American diplomat in the Middle East provide important background about America's present role and challenges in that crucial geography." Burton Gerber, Veteran CIA Officer in Eastern Europe and the Middle East "This is not a striped-pants world. Instead, these stories] illuminate a grittier side of embassy life with a wry sense of humor and a bit of an edge, not unlike the author himself."

A compelling political thriller, colorful adventure story, and well-written travelogue, "The Unofficial Diplomat" provides a revealing behind-the-scenes glimpse of what life is really like for diplomats and their families as they face the challenges of representing the United States while seeking to carve out a semblance of normal existence in a tumultuous world.

This book examines terrorist and insurgent organisations and seeks to understand how such groups persist for so long, while introducing a new strategic doctrine for countering these organisations. The work discusses whether familial or meritocratic insurgencies are more resilient to counterinsurgency pressures. It argues that it is not the type of organization that determines resilience, but rather the efficiency functions of social capital and trust, which have different natures and forms, within them. It finds that while familial insurgencies can challenge incumbents from the start, they weaken over time, whereas meritocracies will generally strengthen. The book examines four of the most enduring and lethal insurgent organizations: the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia, and the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. The author breaks down each group into its formative strengths and vulnerabilities and presents a bespoke model of strategic counterintelligence that can be used to manipulate, degrade and destroy each organization. This book will be of much interest to students of counterinsurgency, terrorism, intelligence, security and defence studies in general.

In his annual presidential address on 8 January 1986, ANC president Oliver Tambo called on South Africans to make apartheid ungovernable through armed action and militant struggle. But unknown to the world, on that very day, the quiet-spoken mathematics teacher and aspirant priest turned reluctant revolutionary had also set up a secret think tank in Lusaka, which he named the Constitution Committee, giving it an ‘ad hoc unique exercise’ that had ‘no precedent in the history of the movement’. Knowing that all wars end at a negotiating table, and judging the balance of forces to be moving in favour of the liberation movement, Tambo wanted the ANC to hold the initiative after the fall of apartheid. Assisted by Pallo Jordan, he instructed his new think tank to formulate the principles and draft the outlines of a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk in the fledgling days of freedom and democracy. The seven-member team, including Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal and Zola Skweyiya, started deliberating and reporting to Tambo. In correspondence, they typically addressed him as ‘Dear Comrade President’. Drawing on the personal archives of participants, Dear Comrade President explains how the purposeful first steps were taken in the making of South Africa’s Constitution. Why and how did this process happen? What were the first written words? When and where were they put on paper? By whom? What values did they espouse? And how did the committee’s work fit into the broader struggle? This book answers these questions in new, paradigm-shifting ways.

Grappling with centuries-old feuds, defeating a shrewd insurgency, and navigating the sometimes paralyzing bureaucracy of the U.S. military are issues that prompt sleepless nights for both policy makers in Washington and soldiers at war, albeit for different reasons. Few, however, have dealt with these issues in the White House situation room and on the front line. Michael G. Waltz has done just that, working as a policy advisor to Vice President Richard B. Cheney and also serving in the mountains of Afghanistan as a Green Beret, directly implementing strategy in the field that he helped devise in Washington. In Warrior Diplomat: A Green Beret’s Battles from Washington to Afghanistan Waltz shares his unique firsthand experiences, revealing the sights, sounds, emotions, and complexities involved in the war in Afghanistan. Waltz also highlights the policy issues that have plagued the war effort throughout the past decade, from the drug trade, to civilian casualties, to a lack of resources in comparison to Iraq, to the overall coalition strategy. At the same time, he points out that stabilizing Afghanistan and the region remains crucial to national security and that a long-term commitment along the lines of South Korea or Germany is imperative if America is to remain secure.

Veteran diplomatic correspondent Paul Richter goes behind the battles and the headlines to show how American ambassadors are the unconventional warriors in the Muslim world—running local government, directing drone strikes, building nations, and risking their lives on the front lines. The tale’s heroes are a small circle of top career diplomats who have been an unheralded but crucial line of national defense in the past two decades of wars in the greater Middle East. In The Ambassadors, Paul Richter shares the astonishing, true-life stories of four expeditionary diplomats who “do the hardest things in the hardest places.” The book describes how Ryan Crocker helped rebuild a shattered Afghan government after the fall of the Taliban and secretly negotiated with the shadowy Iranian mastermind General Qassim Suleimani to wage war in Afghanistan and choose new leaders for post-invasion Iraq. Robert Ford, assigned to be a one-man occupation government for an Iraqi province, struggled to restart a collapsed economy and to deal with spiraling sectarian violence—and was taken hostage by a militia. In Syria at the eruption of the civil war, he is chased by government thugs for defying the country’s ruler. J. Christopher Stevens is smuggled into Libya as US Envoy to the rebels during its bloody civil war, then returns as ambassador only to be killed during a terror attach in Benghazi. War-zone veteran Anne Patterson is sent to Pakistan, considered the world’s most dangerous country, to broker deals that prevent a government collapse and to help guide the secret war on jihadists. “An important and illuminating read” (The Washington Post) and the winner of the prestigious Douglas Dillon Book Award from the American Academy of Diplomacy, The Ambassadors is a candid examination of the career diplomatic corps, America’s first point of contact with the outside world, and a critical piece of modern-day history.