عن الإمبراطورية والمقاومة

by Tariq Ali

هذا الكتاب هو مجموعة حوارات أجراها دايفيد بارساميان مع طارق علي بين الأعوام 2001 و2005، وتدور بشكل خاص حول الإمبراطورية الأميركية، والبريطانية، وتاريخ باكستان والهند، والمقاومة في فلسطين والعراق وأميركا اللاتينية، ونشوء الأصوليات الدينية، والبحث عن اشتراكية ديموقراطية بديلة.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Pakistan, History

215 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2005

About the author

Tariq Ali (Punjabi, Urdu: طارق علی) is a British-Pakistani historian, novelist, filmmaker, political campaigner, and commentator. He is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and regularly contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books.

He is the author of several books, including Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1991) , Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Conversations with Edward Said (2005), Bush in Babylon (2003), and Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002), A Banker for All Seasons (2007) and the recently published The Duel (2008).

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always providing sharp analysis even 20 years after publication. I love the interview style of the book and how often Ali shares personal anecdotes.

[Keen Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The world will become a very unpredictable and very dangerous place. The one thing that it will not do is curb terrorism. It will increase terrorism, because the more countries you destroy, the more people will seek revenge.”

This was what Ali said when he was asked about the possible fallout if the allies invaded Iraq, clearly his words retain a chilling clairvoyancy. Reading books like this has a number of effects on you. In one sense it restores your faith and in another it reminds you that there are still people out there who are able and willing to see the world as it really is, and from a different perspective than the narrow minded Western narrative that we are always given by governments and the media.

Ali is many things, though possibly the most succinct way to sum him up is like a more restrained and accessible Chomsky. Not only does he master his subject, but his clear thinking translates beautifully onto the page, making for a highly accessible and immersive read. The Q & A format is used here, and again it works really well, this is a satisfying device that really allows potentially dense and impenetrable thought and opinions to be delivered in a more clear and accessible way. It works particularly well as an introduction to any thinkers, writers or critics, that you may not be familiar with. It has been used elsewhere with others, and it worked well with Chomsky, who isn’t always the easiest man to read.

Ali is up there with many other fine polemical contemporaries, people like Slavoj Zizek, Noam Chomsky and A.C.Grayling et al. Who know their onions and are never afraid to routinely question authority, challenge rhetoric and raise many important issues, whilst teaching you a thing or two along the way also.

When asked about Tony Blair’s shameless enthusiasm for invading Iraq illegally he says, “Blair does it to get attention. He does it to strike a posture and prance around on the world stage, pretending that he is the leader of a big imperial power when, in fact, he’s the leader of a medium-sized country in Northern Europe.”

He covers many subjects in here, especially US foreign policy. He explores the roots of US imperialism, starting with the genocide of the Native Americans and then the stealing of land from neighbouring nations like Mexico. The Monroe Doctrine, using it to illegally control Latin America. He also explains how the Communist revolution in Russia in 1917 sparked Woodrow Wilson’s fear of the US’s corporate interests being threatened and this eventually resulted in the US’s expansionism into other continents.

Elsewhere he warns against the perils of embedded journalism, America’s increasing ignorance and lack of exposure to other countries and cultures, particularly through TV, which places an overwhelming emphasis on inward looking news, feeding and nurturing the insularity and xenophobia that just creates more problems for other countries, particularly in the Arab world.

So this was another excellent piece of writing from Ali, and credit is due to David Barsamian too, whose well-thought out questions and constant probing succeeded in getting the best out of his subject. Ali also does a good job of moving away from the pantomime baddie image of Islamic nations, so beloved of the majority of Western media. We see that there are not just one dimensional lands of extremism and intolerance, he shows the intelligence, sensitivity and humanity that exists there and has done for centuries.

[Hasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recall spending time with Tariq Ali in 2003, and even I may not agree with everything this walking, talking library has to say, I have always been fascinated by his activism, wit, honesty and zeal for a better world.

Conversations with Tariq Ali, Speaking of Empire and Resistance with David Barsamian discusses with Ali on his views of a perfect world, the Middle East, Pakistan, Empires and USA. Even though the book was written as an interview format in 2003/4, many of the comments are salient for today's problems in the world. Ali, said the war in Iraq would be messy, Afghanistan will not be solved and the Taliban will come back, while his views on the USA of course still are the same, yet events show how the unipolar military might is still problematic.

A good read for students of international affairs, and a chance to understand the mind of a man who writes both fiction and non fiction in a way which I for one admire.

[Yazeed AlMogren · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب تاريخي سياسي يحتوي على حوارات توضح الأسباب الحقيقية للتوسع الإمبريالي عند الدول العظمى والمتفوقة عسكريًا، طارق علي محلل سياسي ومفكر عظيم

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise set of interviews with Tariq Ali that covers Pakistani history, modern politics in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and the larger "War on Terrorism". Tariq Ali is eloquent and passionate, and he draws heavily upon his talks with various leaders and his knowledge of middle eastern poetry. I was a little disappointed that the interviewers ask easy questions without building upon or challenging Tariq's ideas. The book becomes more of a sounding board for Tariq's and less of a dialog about the challenges faced in the "War on Terror".

[Amit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tariq Ali is a firebrand and the book proves it. There is something uniquely dazzling about his convictions whether it is Middle East, US or Pakistan. I had heard of him way back in the eighties when he famously told Rushdie "to get plastic surgery done and disappear in Latin America" to escape the wrath of the fatwa. Two decades later, he is still there - the street fighting man - raging against oppressive governments, policeman states, covetous regimes and corrupt powers.One may not totally agree with his doctrines but cannot not salute his bluster!

[Bassam Bassam · Rating 4 out of 5]

عن الإمبراطورية والمقاومة
تأليف طارق علي (تأليف) دايفيد بارساميان (تأليف)

هذا الكتاب هو مجموعة حوارات أجراها دايفيد بارساميان مع طارق علي بين الأعوام 2001 و2005، وتدور بشكل خاص حول الإمبراطورية الأميركية، والبريطانية، وتاريخ باكستان والهند، والمقاومة في فلسطين والعراق وأميركا اللاتينية، ونشوء الأصوليات الدينية، والبحث عن اشتراكية ديموقراطية بديلة.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Every page made me want to read the next page even more. It's like listening to some really really really interesting family member tell you about the history of the world.

[Astir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tariq Ali is a man of staggering, encyclopedic intellect; if middle eastern geopolitical history is your thing, I guess you probably already know this.

[Vincent W V · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Edeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting stuff, a bit repetitive sometimes but a good analysis. still relevant

[Simon Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

PLEASANTLY PUGNACIOUS

This collection of seven interviews of Tariq Ali by Alternative Radio founder David Barsamian is an entertaining introduction to Tariq Ali's pugnacious, erudite and droll take on the world. The interviews were intermittently conducted between November 2001 and April 2004 but are still relevant, not only for his view of the events of that time but for the awareness of history that Ali brings to these interviews.

Subjects include 9/11, Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Imperialism and the Bush/Blair War in Iraq. Barsamian is not the worlds toughest interviewer by a considerable distance, his role is to introduce the topic and keep Tariq Ali going, not a difficult task. As a secular non-militarist he is particularly interesting on Pakistan, which is so closely bound up with the current war in Afghanistan. I found his reading of Blair to be spot on, especially when one considers recent revelations about the off-shore companies he is setting up presumably to ensure he pays as little tax on his "earnings" as possible: "He's probably too right wing for some conservatives, but he would have been perfectly at home there . . . He has surrounded himself with a pseudo-Christian mafia, which is quite authoritarian in its social attitudes and beliefs . . . there is one more salient feature: he's also a very greedy man. He's obsessed with money [and] always telling people at private dinner parties how being prime minister has meant that he's not earning as much money as he should be . . . When politicians combine piety on the one hand and greed on the other . . . they are internally very mixed-up."

Tariq Ali had apparently decided not to write another work of non-fiction during the early 1990's and concentrated on his fiction writing in his Islamic Quintet. He blames his return to non-fiction on the antics of the Bush and Blair administrations, as a silver lining things could certainly have been a lot worse. Well worth a read, and can be picked up cheaply 2nd hand.

[Saharsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking primer on politics in the Middle East and American Empire after the invasion of Iraq. Many of Ali's predictions have been realized since then (unlike the predictions of Washington's foreign policy insiders), which I think speaks volumes about his deep knowledge of world affairs.

[K6s · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise but interesting collection of Tariq Ali's ideas on empire, Pakistan and the GWOT.

[Arafat Nur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like it. Aku suka karya Anda.

[Shantanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A contra view on American and Western engagement in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Arab world. Well argued and well written.