It has an unusual beauty, and it roots in poor soil.

The thistle is prickly, hardy, and very hard to uproot.

The author uses the metaphor of the drone to represent Western technology and power and points out that the thistle captures the essence of tribal societies. As long as the drone strikes and collateral damage continues, the fight will continue. The unintentional “bug splat” of drone strikes, or the civilian deaths coincident with targeted killings of terrorists, means tribal leaders have a moral responsibility to fight back, aligning with whomever has the strength and willingness to see that fight through. Ahmed goes further to explain how the West has exacerbated regional tensions by inserting themselves into this conflict under the aegis of “the war on terror,” and turned the fight into a global affair against westernization and globalization as defined by Tom Friedman. Ahmed makes a compelling case with examples extending from Albania and Turkey to China and Indonesia, highlighting different models of organization and center-periphery relationships that apply throughout this huge area.Once the framing is stated, it almost seems obvious, which is perhaps the strongest argument for reading this book. While some may think this is accepted thought already, it certainly was not when we went into Iraq in 1990, nor in 2003. Instead of looking at interactions in the world as a “clash of civilizations,” he posits that we should be looking at the Muslim diaspora as a set of tribal communities in conflict with their central governments. The Thistle and the Drone was the 2013 Foreword Reviews Gold winner for Political Science.Īhmed starts out reframing the way the West views the Muslim world. Beginning with Waziristan and expanding to societies in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, Ahmed offers a fresh approach to the conflicts studied and presents an unprecedented paradigm for understanding and winning the war on terror. The study provides the social and historical context necessary to understand how both central governments and tribal societies have become embroiled in America's war. has become involved directly or indirectly in each of these societies. In The Thistle and the Drone, the third volume in Ahmed's groundbreaking trilogy examining relations between America and the Muslim world, the author draws on forty case studies representing the global span of Islam to demonstrate how the U.S. Battered by military attacks or drone strikes one day and suicide bombers the next, the tribes bemoan, 'Every day is like 9/11 for us.' And too often the victims are innocent children at school, women in their homes, workers simply trying to earn a living, and worshipers in their mosques. involvement after 9/11 and the deployment of drones, in the hunt for al Qaeda, threatening the very existence of many tribal societies.Īmerican firepower and its vast anti-terror network have turned the war on terror into a global war on tribal Islam. Akbar Ahmed's unique study demonstrates that this conflict between the center and the periphery has entered a new and dangerous stage with U.S. The center and the periphery are engaged in a mutually destructive civil war across the globe, a conflict that has been intensified by the war on terror.Ĭonflicts between governments and tribal societies predate the war on terror in many regions, from South Asia to the Middle East to North Africa, pitting those in the centers of power against those who live in the outlying provinces. Here world-renowned author, diplomat, and scholar Akbar Ahmed reveals an important yet largely ignored result of this war: in many nations it has exacerbated the already broken relationship between central governments and the largely rural Muslim tribal societies on the peripheries of both Muslim and non-Muslim nations. More than ten years later, the results are decidedly mixed. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States declared war on terrorism.

Nicole wallace drone