The Global War on Terror from the Standpoint of its Victims
Seen from a village in Waziristan, in the upper reaches of Pakistan, the Global War on Terror (GWOT) appears quite differently than it does in the anti-septic briefing rooms at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. It is to understand the GWOT from that vantage that I decided to report – as widely as possible – from the villages that are in the gun-sights of the drone operators. This talk will travel through the landscape of the GWOT, assessing its various impact on countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Vijay Prashad, George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian history and professor of international studies at Trinity College, is the author of over twenty books. His most recent books are The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (2016) and two edited volumes – The Land of Blue Helmets: The UN in the Arab World (co-edited with Karim Makdisi) and Communist Histories, vol. 1. His previous books include the two volume series – The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. He writes every week for Alternet and has written every fortnight for twenty-seven years for the Indian newsmagazine Frontline. He is the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books (New Delhi). He is a graduate from Pomona College (1989).
This lecture is presented in partnership with Pomona College’s Draper Center and Asian American Resource Center.