After 20 years, the conflict in Afghanistan reached a pivotal point as the Taliban seized control of the Afghan government.
Pomona College professors provide insight on the crisis overseas through the lenses of their expertise.
Challenges of Modern Nation Building
Arash Khazeni is a history professor and the coordinator of Middle Eastern studies. His work focuses on the imperial and environmental histories of the modern Middle East, South Asia and the Indian Ocean.
The United States has been embroiled in a fight in Afghanistan targeting the Taliban since 2001. However, the struggle for power and stability over the region spans decades. As Professor Khazeni explains it has proven to be difficult to construct a flourishing nation and contain conflict in the country.
“The vexed project of state building in Afghanistan has a long history. In its deepest sense, it is an ecological story. The rugged mountainous terrain and environment of Afghanistan has for centuries rendered the establishment of centralized states there difficult and fleeting, with cities being isolated from one other and often threatened by the turbulence on their margins. Due to this decentered nature, Afghanistan has been ‘the graveyard of empires’ as well as subsequent efforts to build a modern centralized nation state. Rather, loose tribal confederations and polities, such as the 15th-century Timurid Empire, seemed to have most effectively governed the land we call Afghanistan today,” Khazeni says.
U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Victor Silverman is a historian and filmmaker. His expertise is in past and present U.S. foreign relations, global institutions and world social movements.
Miguel Tinker Salas is a professor of Latin American studies and history. He is an expert in society and politics in Venezuela and Mexico, Mexican border society and Latin American immigration policies.
The United States experienced firsthand the challenges of trying to aid the Afghan government in building a modern, centralized nation. Professors Silverman and Tinker Salas examine the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in a piece written for La Jornada.
“This defeat showed that an empire, even when at the pinnacle of its power, does not have the capacity to dominate the world. It could not defeat a guerrilla army that had the support of a large part of the population—especially when its allies were corrupt and did not have popular support. But David's victory against Goliath did not imply that Goliath would abandon the stick to attack his future enemies,” Silverman and Tinker Salas write.
A Humanitarian Crisis
Associate Dean of the College Zayn Kassam is the John Knox McLean Professor of Religious Studies and director of the Pacific Basin Institute. She has coordinated programs in gender and women’s studies, Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies.
The ongoing clashes for governance over Afghanistan have often left civilians caught in the middle, struggling for their rights and lives. And the recent Taliban takeover will likely create a humanitarian crisis with more people displaced and suffering.
Professor Kassam says neighboring countries will face influxes of refugees as Afghans flee the country out of fear of the Taliban-controlled government.
“These countries have neither the capacity nor the resources to care adequately for refugees, so the UN High Commission for Refugees as well as groups providing support to refugees will need to step in,” Kassam adds.
In the last two decades of enforced peace, the country has made strides in building up the Afghan population. Kassam notes that life expectancies were up, advances were made in health care, education, agriculture, and even mobile communications in rural areas were improved.
“I am cautiously hopeful that the Afghan people have the resilience and the capacity to meet the challenges of political instability while they weather this storm. How the Taliban will govern the country, and the role of international actors will be critical in shaping what lies ahead,” Kassam says.