Instability Is A Problem That Has Recurred Throughout The History Of Afghanistan

In August, Taliban forces regained control of Afghanistan as US forces withdrew after two decades in the country. How can history help make sense of this seismic moment? We asked a panel of experts INTERVIEW BY MATT ELTON

- Matt Elton

Matt Elton: How important is it to understand the history of Afghanistan to make sense of recent events?

Bijan Omrani: It’s vital. Afghanistan’s long history, and the way in which that history is a result of its geography and ethnic make-up, plays a crucial role in the forces acting on the nation today. The fact that neighbouring regions have frequently tried to treat Afghanistan as a frontier territory, despite its geography not really offering easy territory for it to be a frontier, has been a real motor for the way in which the region has developed.

William Dalrymple: The history of foreign interventions in Afghanistan haunts its former invaders, who came to a variety of unsatisfactory ends – whether withdrawal, bankruptcy, or outright defeat – and the Afghans themselves, who have a rich historiography of remembering those interventions. They look on the defeat of the East India Company in 1842, for example, as people in Britain look on the battle of Trafalgar: as a foundational narrative of the state.

Elisabeth Leake: It is, without question, important to think about Afghanistan’s history to understand the current moment. But we also need to be very careful and nuanced in the way in which we engage with that history, and recognise its vibrancy and texture. A key problem in 21st-century western media coverage of Afghanistan is a focus on a set of key tropes that people often assume define its past. One is to see the nation as an “outlier”, instead of thinking about the political and social dynamics that have emerged as a result of international relations and its relationship with its neighbours. Only by taking a more expansive view of Afghanistan and its people can we thoroughly understand what’s going on now.