Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Residence	United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Author, International Security Analyst
Home town	London
Website
iprd.org.uk

Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Development (IPRD), an independent think tank focused on the study of violent conflict in the context of global ecological, energy and economic crises. A bestselling author and international security analyst specialising in the study of mass violence, he has taught at the Department of International Relations, University of Sussex, and has lectured at Brunel University’s Politics & History Unit at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, for courses in international relations theory, contemporary history, empire and globalization.

Contents 1 Career 2 The Crisis of Civilization 2.1 Synopsis 2.2 Critical Reception 3 Quotations 4 Books 5 Academic Articles 6 Policy Reports 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

Career

Dr. Ahmed was awarded an M.A. in Contemporary War & Peace Studies and a PhD in International Relations from the School of Global Studies at Sussex University. His doctoral thesis investigated the radicalization processes and dynamics of violent conflict (including mass violence and genocide) in the context of modern imperial social systems. He specifically focuses on the European Atlantic empires and Western counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has also published widely on international terrorism and the ‘War on Terror’, focusing on the material infrastructure of Islamist terrorist networks and the energy geopolitics of US and Western foreign policy strategies. His current research focuses on the radicalization of violent conflicts in strategic regions in the context of systemic ecological, economic and energy crises rooted in the structure of the global political economy. This is exemplified in his latest book, 'A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: and How to Save It' (Pluto, Macmillan, 2010).

Dr. Ahmed has written for the Independent on Sunday^[1][2][3][4], Prospect Magazine^[5], Le Monde diplomatique^[6], International Affairs (Chatham House), New Internationalist^[7], Muslim News^[8][9], Raw Story^[10][11], New Criminologist^[12], Daily News Egypt^[13], Pakistan Observer^[14], and Tehran Times^[15]; and appeared as an expert commentator for BBC News 24, BBC World News with George Alagiah^[16], BBC Radio Five Live, BBC World Today, BBC Asian Network, Channel 4, Sky News, C-SPAN Book TV^[17], CNN, FOX News, Bloomberg, PBS Foreign Exchange, Al-Jazeera English, Press TV^[18][19], Islam Channel and hundreds of other radio and TV shows in the USA, UK, and Europe. He is also cited and reviewed in the Sunday Times, Times Higher Educational Supplement, The Independent, The Observer^[20], Big Issue Magazine, Vanity Fair, New York Observer, among others, as well as dozens of peer-reviewed social science journals. He comments regularly for popular online newsmagazines such as ZNet^[21][22], Counterpunch^[23][24], AlterNet^[25][26], Op Ed News^{[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]}, Atlantic Free Press, Ceasefire Magazine^[44], Dissident Voice^{[45][46][47][48]} and New Left Project^[49][50]. Dr. Ahmed is also currently a partner contributor for editorials & analysis at former FBI translator Sibel Edmond’s The Boiling Frogs Post^[51] and contributing editor at the Journal for Public Intelligence^[52] founded by Robert D. Steele, former Deputy Director of the US Army’s Marine Corps Intelligence Command.

The Crisis of Civilization

Following the release of Ahmed's 2010 book, 'A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It', a chance meeting with filmmaker Dean Puckett led to the development of a feature documentary entitled 'The Crisis of Civilization'^[53].

Synopsis

"The Crisis of Civilization is a documentary feature film investigating how global crises like ecological disaster, financial meltdown, dwindling oil reserves, terrorism and food shortages are converging symptoms of a single, failed global system. Weaving together archival film footage and animations, film-maker Dean Puckett, animator Lucca Benney and international security analyst Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – author of A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It – offer a stunning wake-up call proving that ‘another world’ is not merely possible, but on its way.

Like the book on which it is based, the film consists of seven parts which explore the interconnected dynamic of global crises of Climate Catastrophe: Peak Energy, Peak Food, Economic Instability, International Terrorism and the Militarization Tendency – with a final section on The Post-Peak World.

The film reveals how a failure to understand the systemic context of these crises. Motivated by neoliberal ideology these various crisis-point factors have developed with a tendency to encourage others not to deal with root structural causes, but only with symptoms. This has led to the proliferation of war, terror, and state-terror, including encroachment on civil liberties, while accelerating global crises rather than solving them.

The real solution, Nafeez argues, is to recognise the inevitability of civilizational change and to work toward a fundamental systemic transformation based on more participatory forms of living: politically, economically and culturally.

Also featuring clowns, car crashes, explosions, acrobats, super heroes, xylophones and much, much more!"^[54]

Critical Reception

The Crisis of Civilization has been received positively by viewers. Hitcham Yezza, editor of Ceasefire Magazine, found "the film’s aesthetic delightful, the result of film-maker Dean Puckett and animator Lucca Benney’s artful concoction of clips from 40s commercials, B-movies, quirky animation, and more familiar images of Bush, Bin Laden and Brzezinski." He also wrote, "this film is necessary viewing, not just for activists but for anyone who’s planning to hang around this planet for the foreseeable future. Yes, I’m looking at you."^[55] Elsewhere, Richard Heinberg of the Post Carbon Institute said of the film, "a really fantastic overview of the global situation. I don’t think I’ve seen a more comprehensive ‘welcome to the 21st century’.” The Leeds International Film Festival selected the film as a 'Festival Favourite' calling it "a powerful critique of a failed global system and a manifesto for constructive social change”^[56].

Quotations

Of The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism:

• "Nafeez Ahmed’s understanding of the post 9/11 power game, its lies, illusions and dangers, is no less than brilliant. Everyone should read this wise and powerfully illuminating book." - John Pilger

• "I wish every American who still believes in the good intentions of our government would read this book. Drawing upon his impressive research into recent history, Nafeez Ahmed skilfully exposes the real motives behind the 'war on terrorism' and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq." - Howard Zinn: American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist.

• "Nafeez Ahmed demonstrates brilliantly that the war on freedom is inseparable from the war on truth." - Vandana Shiva

• "On the subject 'How and Why America was Attacked on 11 September, 2001', the best, most balanced report, thus far, is by Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed." - Gore Vidal

Of A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save it:

• “This is an important book. There has been much discussion already about climate change, peak oil, the cost of food and overpopulation, the global financial crisis busting neoliberal capitalism, the rise of violent extremism, and the containment of the so-called war on terror. But this is the first book to systematically explore their interconnections and place them within a single comprehensive narrative. That makes it a very worthwhile read for policy-makers everywhere.” Rt. Hon. Michael Meacher MP

• “Few thinkers weave as many threads into a tapestry as Nafeez Ahmed has done so superbly in this book.” - Dr. Jeremy Leggett

• "This is a staggeringly comprehensive bird’s-eye view of the gaping cracks that are appearing in global industrial civilization. Ahmed weaves a context that makes current economic and geopolitical events comprehensible. If you want to understand why the world is coming apart at the seams and what we can do to lay the foundations for a sane, peaceful, and sustainable society, read this book.” - Richard Heinberg

• "This important analysis exposes vital truths and challenges much conventional wisdom. It deserves to be widely read.” - Mark Curtis

Books

• The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001: ISBN 0-930852-40-0, 400 pages, Progressive Press, 2002.
• Behind the War on Terror : Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle for Iraq: ISBN 0-86571-506-8, 352 pages Clairview Books, 2003.
• The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism: ISBN 1-56656-596-0, 459 pages, Olive Branch Press, 2005.
• The London Bombings: An Independent Inquiry: ISBN 0-7156-3583-2 256 pages, Duckworth, 2006.
• A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save it: ISBN 978-0745330532 Fully indexed with 600+ references and 18 diagrams; Peer-reviewed by an interdisciplinary panel of twelve scholars and scientists, Pluto Press, 2010.

Academic Articles

Policy Reports

See also

• List of British Bangladeshis

References

External links

• iprd.org.uk The Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD)
• The Cutting Edge Nafeez Ahmed's personal blog
• crisisofcivilization.com Official website of the upcoming documentary film featuring Dr. Nafeez Ahmed.

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