Afghanistan observed

Barnett R. Rubin, The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xvii + 378 pp. No price given.

Barnett R. Rubin, The Search for Peace in Afghanistan: From Buffer State to Failed State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. xi + 190 pp. US$25.00 (paper).

David B. Edwards, Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996. xviii + 306 pp. No price given.

J.L. Lee, The ‘Ancient Supremacy’: Bukhara, Afghanistan and the Battle for Balkh, 1731–1901. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. i + 695 pp. No price given.     

Afghanistan: the reconstruction process

In this article the author focuses initially on the degree of support provided by the international community to the interim administration of Afghanistan and notes that the pledges made at the Tokyo Conference do not equate to the per capita levels of funding made available for other recent emergencies. He draws attention to the inter–relationship between security and funding for reconstruction and comments that the recent decision of the US government to join with others in agreeing to finance work to upgrade the major highway system is very timely in shoring up the regime in the wake of the recent assassination attempt on Hamid Karzai. He stresses that the international community needs to provide sustained support to the new government if it is to survive. He also analyses the complex relationship between the administration and the aid community and reports on the calls by the government to be given the major part of the resources allocated by international donors and to be supported to take the lead in determining policy and strategy.
The author notes the nature of the Afghan economy and the potential for reconstruction, taking account of the economic impact of the conflict, the progress made by the aid community since 1992, the humanitarian crisis arising from the drought of 1999–2001 and the large scale, mainly involuntary, return of refugees from Pakistan and Iran since March 2002. He comments on the fact that the agricultural economy cannot support its population, on the need for economic safety valves in the form of migration to Pakistan and Iran, on the availability of camps for internally displaced people, and on urbanization. In concluding the author is both optimistic and cautious, noting the fragility of the situation, but also acknowledging that the international community is taking timely action to address it through reconstruction assistance although it remains reluctant to give sufficient priority to security provision.     

Prehistoric Survey in Central Afghanistan

Abstract

In August of 1976 the authors made an initial archaeological survey of the Dasht-i-Nawur, a highland volcanic-tectonic basin in Central Afghanistan. Two Epi-Paleolithic surface sites and one later hill fortification of uncertain date were discovered and investigated. An outstanding feature of the Epi-Paleolithic sites was that the source of virtually the entire tool industry was a locally available obsidian, a material that has not been found before in archaeological context in Afghanistan or nearby regions. The Dasht-i-Nawur, therefore, must be added to the short list of obsidian sources in Southwest Asia.     

Interpreting for the Afghanistan Spanish Force

The participation of interpreters as linguistic and cultural mediators is considered essential to the success of military operations in a foreign country. This study examines the situation of two categories of civilian interpreters who worked for the Spanish armed forces in Afghanistan: interpreters recruited in Spain and interpreters recruited in Afghanistan. The distinct positionalities of these groups of interpreters emerge as a recurring theme in the interviews carried out as part of this research. The findings indicate that the interpreter’s positionality impacted the interpreter’s agency, the trust placed in him or her by the armed forces, and exposure to danger. In highlighting interpreters’ active participation in the communicative situation, this paper increases understanding of the positionality of interpreters in war zones.     

The Folk Life of Afghanistan.

THOMAS BEWICK, Wood engraver, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1753–1828. Greenock, The Signet Press, 1956. Pp. 23. 2s. 6d. Reviewed by W. B.

ULSTER FOLKLIFE: Issued by the Committee on Ulster Folklife and Traditions. Belfast, 1955. Reviewed by Violet Alford.

HAFOD 16 (A Medieval Welsh Medical Treatise). By IDA B. JONES. Études celtiques, 7, pp. 46–75. 1955. [Offprint.]. Reviewed by Wilfrid Bonser.

COLONIAL BALLADS. By HUGH ANDERSON. Victoria, Rams Skull Press, l955. Pp. 157. 29s. 6d. (Austr.). Reviewed by Margaret Dean-Smith.

SEVEN CENTURIES OF POPULAR SONG. A Social History of Urban Ditties. By REGINALD NETTEL. Phoenix House, 1956. Pp. 248. 25s. Reviewed by Margaret Dean-Smith.

THE TWELVE OLYMPIANS AND THEIR GUESTS. By CHARLES SELTMAN. Max Parrish, 1956. Pp. 208. + 16 plates+map. 17s. 6d. Reviewed by J.M.     

Afghanistan: Imperatives of Stability Misperceived

More than seven years have passed since the intervention of the international community in Afghanistan, yet the country has not only failed to achieve stability; it has actually experienced a downward trend on that account. The worsening situation in Afghanistan has occurred despite the fact that the Afghan government and its international partners have allocated unprecedented amounts of resources, increased their security forces and implemented socio-political and economic programs that they deemed were conducive to stability. Why and how this failure did come about? This article challenges some of the underlying assumptions for stability and the notion of political reconstruction that the international community and the Afghan government have implemented so far as being largely responsible for the gloomy state of affairs in that country.     

阿富汗毒品问题的历史考察

罂粟种植与人类文明相伴而生。随着世界交往的不断扩大以及地区性交往向全球性交往的转变,罂粟种植与鸦片的使用开始在全球范围内传播。阿富汗出现鸦片最早可以追溯到公元前1世纪,20世纪70年代末至90年代初,阿富汗毒品问题产生,在此后20余年的内战中毒品问题进一步发展,对阿富汗的政治、经济和社会诸层面产生了深刻的影响,并且对国际社会形成了巨大的压力和挑战。阿富汗现代化的挫折是毒品问题形成的根本原因,阿富汗独立不结盟地位的丧失是毒品问题形成的直接原因,适宜的气候条件则是毒品问题形成的必要条件。从历史发展的视角来考察,阿富汗毒品问题的解决将是一个长期的过程,并且只有在国际社会通力合作的情况下才能实现。     

Transitional justice and human rights in Afghanistan

Like other societies emerging from protracted conflict, Afghanistan confronts a legacy of past crimes and violence. Communist rulers, Soviet occupiers, rural resistance fighters, Islamist parties, the Taleban movement, Pakistani volunteers, al-Qaeda members, power-seeking warlords, and the anti-Taliban coalition all contributed more or less to the litany of abuses since 1978. Almost no one in the society has been untouched, and almost no one with any power has clean hands. For these very reasons, caution and care are necessary. Demobilizing and reintegrating tens of thousands of irregular militia, as well as creating new security forces are the necessary conditions for the rest of the peace-building agenda, and, as shown by the author's first-hand experience in the Bonn negotiations over the post-Taleban succession, raising the issue of past crimes prematurely may lead fighters to revert to previous modes of behaviour. He argues for a careful start that emphasizes documenting the scale of the abuses with an emphasis on the suffering of the victims rather than the guilt of the perpetrators, in order gradually to support an Afghan debate on how to reconcile the society with its history.     

Informal (In)security in Urban Afghanistan

Poverty and insecurity in Afghan cities are intricately intertwined with conditions of “informality.” The term and the realities it describes refer to living situations in which basic needs and activities such as work, housing, and social security are unprotected by laws and standards. Immersion into such a convolution of informality determines the life of a majority among urban populations in Afghanistan and conveys a deep sense of insecurity for the urban poor. The paper looks at how rapid and unprecedented urban growth in Afghanistan goes along with rising levels of livelihood insecurity and explores how the urban poor cope with livelihood risks through a range of informal arrangements. Conceptually, the notion of “informal security regimes” helps capture informality as a coping strategy and how it relates to urban poverty in Afghanistan. Informed by extensive empirical fieldwork, the paper identifies different elements of the “informal security regime” in urban Afghanistan and explores their specific operations. The paper is mainly focused on the Afghan capital, Kabul, supplemented with evidence from other urban sites in Afghanistan.     

Reconciliation and research in Afghanistan: an analytical narrative

This article examines the evolution of western policy towards the idea of pursuing negotiations with the Taliban, or ‘reconciliation’, in Afghanistan and the role that research and expert opinion played in that process. The official western position has evolved iteratively from initial rejection to near complete embrace of exploring the potential for talks. It is widely assumed that the deteriorating security situation was the sole determinant of this major policy reversal, persuading decision‐makers to rethink what had once been deemed unthinkable. Moreover, given the politicized and sensitive nature of the subject, we might expect the potential for outside opinion to influence decision‐makers to be low. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates that it would be a mistake to underestimate the role that research and expert knowledge played—the story is more nuanced and complex. Research coalesced, sometimes prominently, with other key drivers to spur and shape policy change. Importantly, it often took experts to make sense of events on the ground, especially where the failure of the military approach was not recognized, understood or palatable to those in official circles. Research interacted with changing events, policy windows, the emergence of new personalities and the actions of various intermediaries to shape emerging positions. More broadly, the case of reconciliation in Afghanistan reveals the difficulties and challenges, but also the variety of opportunities and techniques, for achieving research influence in conflict‐affected environments.     

阿富汗难民:历史、现状及影响

阿富汗难民主要由三股难民潮造成,当前仍有数量众多的阿富汗难民滞留在国外.自塔利班政权倒台后,阿富汗难民的遣返工作进展并不顺利,这体现出在后冷战时期,国际社会尤其是西方对阿富汗难民问题的冷漠.阿富汗难民问题不仅会影响到阿富汗的重建,还会影响到阿富汗的对外关系,且难民营有成为恐怖主义滋生地、输出地的趋势,这是国际社会必须要认真对待的.     

Talking the talk: Debating debate in northern Afghanistan

The ethnographic focus of this article is on the ways in which Afghan families who lived in northern Pakistan as refugees are currently reflecting upon to their complex experiences of return to their country through a rich and complex culture of debate, as well as the deployment of other verbal and peformative skills, especially imitation. More broadly, it argues that the comparative study of situated practices of debate offers unique insights for the anthropological analysis of Islam, which an expanding body of work on the ways in which piety minded Muslims embody and cultivate ethical and moral values has thus far overlooked.