Connecting Histories in Afghanistan

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan PDF Author: Shah Hanifi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804774110
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published online in 2008 by Columbia University Press.

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan

Connecting Histories in Afghanistan PDF Author: Shah Hanifi
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804774110
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published online in 2008 by Columbia University Press.

Imagining Afghanistan

Imagining Afghanistan PDF Author: Nivi Manchanda
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108491235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
An innovative exploration of how colonial interventions in Afghanistan have been made possible through representations of the country as 'backward'.

A Brief History of Afghanistan

A Brief History of Afghanistan PDF Author: Shaista Wahab
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438108192
Category : Afghanistan
Languages : en
Pages : 321

Get Book Here

Book Description
Located along the busy trade routes between Asia and Europe, Afghanistan was for centuries a place where a diverse set of cultures met and exchanged goods and ideas.

Humanitarian Invasion

Humanitarian Invasion PDF Author: Timothy Nunan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107112079
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
Humanitarian Invasion provides a history of international development and humanitarianism in Cold War Afghanistan.

Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency

Culture, Conflict, and Counterinsurgency PDF Author: Thomas H. Johnson
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804789215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Get Book Here

Book Description
The authors of Culture, Conflict and Counterinsurgency contend that an enduring victory can still be achieved in Afghanistan. However, to secure it we must better understand the cultural foundations of the continuing conflicts that rage across Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, and shift our strategy from an attritional engagement to a smarter war plan that embraces these cultural dimensions. They examine the nexus of culture, conflict, and strategic intervention, and attempt to establish if culture is important in a national security and foreign policy context, and to explore how cultural phenomena and information can best be used by the military. In the process they address just how intimate cultural knowledge needs to be to counter an insurgency effectively. Finally, they establish exactly how good we've been at building and utilizing cultural understanding in Afghanistan, what the operational impact of that understanding has been, and where we must improve to maximize our use of cultural knowledge in preparing for and engaging in future conflicts.

Losing Afghanistan

Losing Afghanistan PDF Author: Noah Coburn
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804796637
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan mobilized troops, funds, and people on an international level not seen since World War II. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and tens of billions of dollars flowed into the country. But what was gained for Afghanistan—or for the international community that footed the bill? Why did development money not lead to more development? Why did a military presence make things more dangerous? Through the stories of four individuals—an ambassador, a Navy SEAL, a young Afghan businessman, and a wind energy engineer—Noah Coburn weaves a vivid account of the challenges and contradictions of life during the intervention. Looking particularly at the communities around Bagram Airbase, this ethnography considers how Afghans viewed and attempted to use the intervention and how those at the base tried to understand the communities around them. These compelling stories step outside the tired paradigms of 'unruly' Afghan tribes, an effective Taliban resistance, and a corrupt Karzai government to show how the intervention became an entity unto itself, one doomed to collapse under the weight of its own bureaucracy and contradictory intentions.

Afghanistan Remembers

Afghanistan Remembers PDF Author: Parin Dossa
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442667613
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Get Book Here

Book Description
Although extensive literature exists on the violence of war, little attention has been given to the ways in which this violence becomes entrenched and normalized in the inner recesses of everyday life. In Afghanistan Remembers, Parin Dossa examines Afghan women’s recall of violence through memories and food practices in their homeland and its diaspora. Her work reveals how the suffering and trauma of violence has been rendered socially invisible following decades of life in a war-zone. Dossa argues that it is necessary to acknowledge the impact of violence on the familial lives of Afghan women along with their attempts at recovery under difficult circumstances. Informed by Dossa’s own story of family migration and loss, Afghanistan Remembers is a poignant ethnographic account of the trauma of war. She calls on the reader to recognize and bear witness to the impact of deeper forms of violence.

Bazaar Politics

Bazaar Politics PDF Author: Noah Coburn
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804778906
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
After the fall of the Taliban, instability reigned across Afghanistan. However, in the small town of Istalif, located a little over an hour north of Kabul and not far from Bagram on the Shomali Plain, local politics remained relatively violence-free. Bazaar Politics examines this seemingly paradoxical situation, exploring how the town's local politics maintained peace despite a long, violent history in a country dealing with a growing insurgency. At the heart of this story are the Istalifi potters, skilled craftsmen trained over generations. With workshops organized around extended families and competition between workshops strong, kinship relations become political and subtle negotiations over power and authority underscore most interactions. Starting from this microcosm, Noah Coburn then investigates power and relationships at various levels, from the potters' families; to the local officials, religious figures, and former warlords; and ultimately to the international community and NGO workers. Offering the first long-term on-the-ground study since the arrival of allied forces in 2001, Noah Coburn introduces readers to daily life in Afghanistan through portraits of local residents and stories of his own experiences. He reveals the ways in which the international community has misunderstood the forces driving local conflict and the insurgency, misunderstandings that have ultimately contributed to the political unrest rather than resolved it. Though on first blush the potters of Istalif may seem far removed from international affairs, it is only through understanding politics, power, and culture on the local level that we can then shed new light on Afghanistan's difficult search for peace.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns PDF Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 074758589X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book Here

Book Description
A riveting and powerful story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love

How We Won and Lost the War in Afghanistan

How We Won and Lost the War in Afghanistan PDF Author: Douglas Grindle
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1612349935
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Douglas Grindle provides a firsthand account of how the war in Afghanistan was won in a rural district south of Kandahar City and how the newly created peace slipped away when vital resources failed to materialize and the United States headed for the exit. By placing the reader at the heart of the American counterinsurgency effort, Grindle reveals little-known incidents, including the failure of expensive aid programs to target local needs, the slow throttling of local government as official funds failed to reach the districts, and the United States’ inexplicable failure to empower the Afghan local officials even after they succeeded in bringing the people onto their side. Grindle presents the side of the hard-working Afghans who won the war and expresses what they really thought of the U.S. military and its decisions. Written by a former field officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, this story of dashed hopes and missed opportunities details how America’s desire to leave the war behind ultimately overshadowed its desire to sustain victory.