Frontier of Fear: Confronting the Taliban on Pakistan's Border

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The troubled borderland of Pakistan and Afghanistan the so-called AfPak region is one of the most dangerous areas of the world. Between 2006 and 2010 David L. Gosling lived in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, where he was principal of Edwardes College, a prestigious higher education college, affiliated with the University of Peshawar. In this book, Gosling describes his time at Edwardes College and the challenges and changes of his tenure. Already the first co-educational college in the province, Gosling significantly increased the proportion of female students and staff. The book also describes the early stages of Taliban growth in Afghanistan, its spill-over into the tribal borderlands of Pakistan and how a combination of Pakistan army activity and US drone strikes provoked a furious backlash by Taliban groups against civilian targets in and around Peshawar, including death threats against the author. Providing a personal account of the education and politics of this frontier region, this book offers a unique viewpoint on a part of the world which is often misunderstood."

Reviews

'Imagine the English principal of a famous college on the North West Frontier, a place built by the British and founded by Christians. Inject a few nightmares - Taliban bombs, suicide attacks, the daily slaughter of civilians and children, and bloody US drone attacks on the surrounding countryside - and picture how this teacher nevertheless carries on, trying to instruct the Muslims and Christians in his class in the fundamentals of history, physics and economics. You come up with only one name: David Lagourie Gosling.' Robert Fisk, The Independent

Author Bio

David L. Gosling was principal of Edwardes College in the University of Peshawar, Pakistan, from 2006 to 2010. He is a Life Member and former Spalding Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge and has held lectureships and visiting fellowships in the universities of Hull, Lancaster and Delhi and at the East-West Center in Hawaii.