Ahmed Rashid was a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review for more than twenty years, covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. He now writes for BBC Online, the New York Times, and other newspapers. He has been covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan since 1979. He is the author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia.