Because of the subject matter of your blog, a new essay on Afghanistan by the leading American expert on the country at the Boston Review website may be of significant interest to you. With the 20th anniversary of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, this narrative of Afghanistan is particularly relevant. Below is a description of the forum that you could use on your blog if you’d like. The essay can be found at http://bostonreview.net/BR34.1/rubin.php

Now on the Boston Review website, Barnett Rubin, Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation, examines Afghanistan, tracing its recent political history as commentary on its future. The leading American expert on Afghanistan, Rubin weaves into the Afghani narrative a personal one, exposing flawed Western perspectives and inadequate Afghani governance. He explores the deep historical roots of political mistrust in Afghanistan, and the difficulties building new institutions, given that profound mistrust. “Under the more open conditions that have prevailed since the fall of the Taliban, I have seen clearly more of what I had only sensed on visits in previous decades. The human effect of decades of war: how the collapse of even a relatively weak state authority forced people back to their kin, clan, or tribal groups; how violence, which could erupt at any moment, from any direction, quickly rekindled memories of earlier traumas. Over the years, with violence and its legacy a constant presence, the trust that institutional cooperation demands had been blown to bits as surely as the Buddhas of Bamiyan. …Against that corrosive background, every effort to reconnect the scattered fragments of the former national elites—or to reconnect returning elites with those who had remained—could be undermined with a careless word, a careless dollar, or a careless bomb.”

Read it all on bostonreview.net .

The Boston Review dedicates itself to providing informative, relevant content. We hope that your blog is interested in this essay on Afghanistan. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Alex Katz
Boston Review Editorial Assistant

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