Afghanistan Kabul Kurier : One Soldier's Story of the Taliban, Tribes & Ethnicities, Opium Trade, & Burqas

An intimate and unvarnished portrait of a war-weary nation penned by a senior intelligence officer who spent a year on the ground in Kabul.

From 2008-2009, then Colonel Zwack kept an intimate journal of his experiences as a soldier serving in complex and dangerous Afghanistan when the success and failure of the international mission still hung in the balance. During that time, he was the Director of the Joint Intelligence and Operations Center located at the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Kabul Kurier addresses the multiple challenges that plagued the mission and overall region, which were not fundamentally different from those that led to the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Colorfully written, the Afghanistan Kabul Kurier offers compelling vignettes and stories, as well as rare insights into Afghan society and culture, including the traditional division and tension between urban and rural communities; its diverse tribes and ethnicities; the plight of women and girls; governance during endemic corruption; the corrosive opium trade; difficult regional neighbors; and much more. Readers will feel as if they are alongside Zwack in a helicopter as he flies through the vast Hindu Kush mountains and navigates hazardous roads along the harsh Afghanistan terrain.

Zwack's forthright and respectful observations provide a refreshing counterpoint to accounts that will be heavy on politics and light on the human dimension of Afghanistan's painful struggles to forge its future.

Deployed to Afghanistan 2008-2009, then Colonel Zwack served as:

*        Director of the Joint Intelligence Operations Center - Afghanistan (JIOC/A) conducting intelligence and situational awareness in and around Afghanistan

*        J2 (Senior Intelligence Officer), for U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR/A)

*        Deputy CJ2 (intelligence officer) for the NATO international security assistance force (ISAF) in Afghanistan

Brigadier General Peter B. Zwack {Ret.}.

U.S. Army Attache to Moscow (2012 2014)

Wilson Center Global Fellow