Afghanistan in Global History

Undergraduate / Graduate

From the consolidation of European imperial control in South and Central Asia through the present day, Afghanistan has featured in the global imagination of empire. It has been called a "buffer state," "the graveyard of empires," and the land of the "great game." But how have Afghans experienced these global historical currents in their homeland? In this course, we trace the history of global and imperial engagement with Afghanistan, as well as Afghans' own articulations of their history, society, and culture, with particular attention to Afghan experiences of British, Soviet, and US intervention. We ask how external global powers imagined Afghanistan and sought to use that imaginary to establish regional authority. Equally, we study how Afghans responded to global geopolitical claims and developed their own historical narratives that exceed the simplified narratives developed by many global powers.