America’s Favorite Warlord

Meet America’s favorite “warlord,” Abdul Raziq Achakzai (1976-2018). This book depicts the U.S. war in Afghanistan from a new perspective: that of the most dynamic and fearsome of America’s late allies. His critics castigated him as another of the corrupt strongmen who have dominated Central Asia for the past four decades. But a closer look at Raziq’s environment will allow readers from the West to understand how military leaders came to participate in Afghan governance after 2001, much as Americans have turned to charismatic authoritarians to establish justice in the face of uncertainty at home in the past. Why did foreigners continue to work with Raziq, given his grievous reputation? The short answer is that he was competent from a military perspective. But speaking of General Raziq with his former comrades revealed that competence in counterinsurgency took on many distinct connotations. Over the course of his career, Raziq not only captured and killed Taliban fighters. He provided intelligence, recruited and organized manpower, rallied lagging forces, and allowed outsiders a way into the complex tribal politics of Kandahar Province. Above all, his charisma and enthusiasm inspired hope in his military partners, along with wide swaths of the population of Kandahar. Almost everyone who met Raziq remarked on his force of personality, which took on cult status in his last years. Raziq rose to power as a hybrid figure, as he gained authority through his military skills and as part of a tribal hierarchy. This hybridity helps to explain why his leadership was flexible and inclusive rather than authoritarian in nature. Although he began his career as a narrow tribal militiaman, he ended it as a coalition-building nationalist. In our age of militarized borders, proxy wars, and insurgencies, Raziq’s career as a regional strongman offers an important case study for ongoing security dilemmas around the world.