240110 SE Afghanistan: a political anthropology (P3) (P4) (2011W)

In its scale and duration, the conflict that has been tearing Afghanistan apart is one of the gravest
humanitarian disasters of these last decades. The country is poor and somehow marginal, but the
crisis of the state and society has affected the entire world. Since the intervention of the military
coalition led by the United States and the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, Afghanistan has
experienced dramatic changes. The democratization process conducted under the guidance of
the international community has resulted in the first free presidential and legislative elections in
the history of the country. However, after a period of hope, these formal successes did not
prevent a further deterioration of the situation on the field.
Geography and economy, social and political organization, ethnicity and transnational networks
will be presented as a basis for understanding the causes and consequences of domestic political
turmoil and foreign interventions over the last thirty years. The course will combine lectures and
discussions to provide conceptual tools for reading the political news in light of the past and
sociocultural contexts. The current situation, the predicament of today’s reconstruction, and the
country’s prospects for the future will receive much attention.