Between Imperial Rule and Sovereignty: Rethinking Afghanistan Studies

Abstract

This review examines the analytical interventions of three new books on Afghanistan released in 2020. Each book uniquely traces the ways in which knowledge around Afghanistan has been intimately tied with imperial geopolitical agendas. Through employing discursive analysis, media content analysis, critical readings of the archive, and sustained ethnographic methods, these three books collectively constitute an important turning point in the study of Afghanistan. In making visible how knowledge and power intersect in novels, A film, military handbooks, and in the minutiae of Afghans' everyday lives, these three books mark a renewed call to rehumanize a population that has long preoccupied Western academic and political domains.

Keywords:

• Afghanistan
• imperialism
• development
• orientalism
• narratives