In Post-War Afghanistan





d

I first got "hooked" by Central Asia on a three-week stay in Uzbekistan during the U.S.-led Afghan war. Writing a book for the German publisher Rowohlt, I spent much of 2002 zigzagging the region and meeting with the principal actors of the 'New Great Game' about oil and pipelines: Kazakh oil barons, U.S. generals, Russian diplomats, Afghan warlords, etc. I travelled through the vast Central Asian steppe from Turkmenistan to Xinjiang (China), across the majestic mountain ranges of the Pamir, the Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram, all the way to Kashmir and Karachi. And of course to post-Taliban Afghanistan, which in all its tragic beauty lies at the centre of most Great Game strategies.