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.

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. 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

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.

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. He is an honorary research fellow in social sciences at the University of Roehampton in London. Among his books is a trilogy including Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism (2011), Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan (2010), and Imperial Designs: War, Humiliation and the Making of History (2013), published by Potomac Books, Inc., Washington, D.C. In his long career as a journalist before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Deepak Tripathi lived and worked in the United States and Britain, and reported from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and India. Turning to his current research interest in great power rivalries and conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia, he has since published several books, and more than a hundred and fifty articles. His columns have appeared in numerous journals and periodicals, including CounterPunch, History News Network of George Mason University, Al-Ahram Weekly, Al Jazeera English, Palestine Chronicle, Mondoweiss, and the Nation of Pakistan. "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