Power and Authority in Afghanistan

Rethinking Politics, Intervention and Rule

Anna Larson, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, Omar Sharifi

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English

I.B. Tauris
20 February 2025

Peace studies & conflict resolution; Afghan War; Religious intolerance, persecution & conflict; Gender studies: women

As a result of a 20-year international military campaign, Afghanistan has been at the centre of global academic and policy debates on intervention and statebuilding. Yet these debates have often been piecemeal, ahistorical and centred in western logics, interests and concerns.

This volume provides a new, critical compilation of scholarly contributions from emerging and established Afghan and international scholars that defy these trends.

The volume targets a new generation of students and scholars of Afghanistan– a generation looking critically and retrospectively at the longest military intervention in US history. This is a readership well-attuned to the complexities of the Afghan context and the dilemmas of international engagement more broadly. Beyond criticism of a failed intervention and the often reductive analytical tools that have been used to assess it, the chapters in this collection provide novel epistemological approaches to conceptions of power and authority in Afghanistan.

Breaking new ground, Power and Authority gives voice to and consolidates in one volume the first generation of influential Afghan scholars to emerge after forty years and

offers them the opportunity to speak with (and back to) those who have come before.

Edited by: Anna Larson, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, Omar Sharifi
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780755647484
ISBN 10: 0755647483
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 20 February 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures List of Contributors Acknowledgements Abbreviations General Maps Introduction: Rethinking Power and Authority in Afghanistan Anna Larson Section 1: Logics of Rule and Institutional (Dis-)Continuities 1. Stability as Strength in the Musahiban Era Thomas Barfield 2. The Taliban, Women and the Hegelian Private Sphere (previously published, 2003) Juan Cole 3. Legitimizing Power in Afghanistan Haroun Rahimi 4. Unlocking the Taliban Puzzle: Traditions and Fundamentalisms Mujib Abid 5. Neopatrimonial Perspectives on Political Structures in Afghanistan Zinab Attai, Maryam Jami and Boshra Moheb 6. Civil-Military Relations, Battlefield Performance, and the Disintegration of Afghanistan's Security Forces Basir Yosufi Section 2: Intervention and its Legacies 7. Ghost Schools: Imperial Debris and the Erasure of Educated Women Marya Hannun 8. Peace Building and State-building in Afghanistan (previously published, 2006) Barnett R Rubin 9. Afghan Subjectivities and U.S. Foreign Policy: Postcolonial Perspectives Nasema Zeerak 10. Leased Power and Vague Authority: The Political Culture and Economy of Rule in Afghanistan Nazif Shahrani 11. Legitimacy by Design Astri Suhrke 12. Brokerage, Business and the Continuities in Power Noah Coburn and Arsalan Noori 13. Power, Ideas, and the 'Taliban 2.0' Myth William Maley Section 3: The Politics of Recognition and Resistance 14. The State, the Clergy, and British Imperial Policy in Afghanistan during the 19th and Early 20th Centuries Senzil Nawid 15. The Pushback against the Hazara Rise in Afghanistan Ali Yarwar Adili 16. Minority Games: Intergroup Power Imbalances in a Nation of Competing Identities Annika Schmeding 17. Inheriting Hegemonic Nobility: Urban Elite Lineage and Legitimacy Adam H. Dehsabzi 18. Failed Democracy in Afghanistan: Rethinking Deliberation and Pluralism Omar Sadr 19. Mujahidin Memory and the Legacies of Wartime Governance in Afghanistan Munazza Ebtikar Afterword Dipali Mukhopadhyay

Anna Larson is an independent analyst and writer. She has worked in Afghanistan since 2004, writing and teaching at SOAS, University of London and Tufts University. Dipali Mukhopadhyay is Associate Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and Vice President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies. Omar Sharifi is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota and Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at the American University of Afghanistan.

Reviews for Power and Authority in Afghanistan: Rethinking Politics, Intervention and Rule

This important and timely text brings together a wide-range of authors to portray a complex and nuanced picture of the politics of Afghanistan: past and present. It is highly recommended for students of Afghanistan and politically-engaged audiences globally. -- Nivi Manchanda, Reader in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London, UK Anna Larson, Dipali Mukhopadhyay, Omar Sharifi, and other contributors to this volume offer a nuanced analysis of how colonial legacies, narratives of power, and institutional continuity have shaped power and authority in Afghanistan. This book will be of great interest to those studying Afghanistan, practitioners, and those interested in understanding power and authority in difficult situations. -- Nematullah Bizhan, Senior Lecturer, the Australian National University, Australia Power and Authority brings together an outstanding array of emerging and eminent Afghanistan scholars at a critical historical moment. The book tackles the complexity and richness of Afghan politics from a variety of disciplinary angles, theoretical perspectives, and positionalities, forcing us to rethink and revise our own understandings of the past 20 years. A tour de force! * Romain Malejacq, Associate Professor, Radboud University, Netherlands, Author of Warlord Survival: The Delusion of State Building in Afghanistan * This volume’s rich collection of chapters by leading Afghanistan scholars and an impressive new generation of Afghan and international researchers is a must read for anyone trying to better understand Afghanistan’s political history as well as some of the key factors contributing to the defeat of the United States in its longest war. The book’s insightful analyses of the nature and relationship of power and authority will also serve as a useful guide to understanding what likely lies ahead in Afghanistan. * Andrew Wilder, PhD, Vice President, Asia Center, United States Institute of Peace, USA *