Humanitarian Invasion
Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan

Humanitarian Invasion provides a history of international development and humanitarianism in Cold War Afghanistan.

Timothy Nunan (Author)

9781107112070, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 January 2016

332 pages, 8 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.8 x 15.5 x 2.6 cm, 0.62 kg

'Nunan unexpectedly presents the political and present-day issues with researching history in both a global and development context. Due to the history of development and the Cold War, 'failed states' and 'unfriendly regimes' create situations in which historians must decide how to advance their research. In Nunan's case, he continued his work and visited Central Asian, Russian, and Indian archives, in addition to interviewing local people while he was in-country. By not allowing 'failed state' diplomacy and politics to hinder academic research, he manages to bring a nuanced approach to the historiography of development and Afghanistan.' Ryan Glauser, Global Histories

Humanitarian Invasion is the first book of its kind: a ground-level inside account of what development and humanitarianism meant for Afghanistan, a country touched by international aid like no other. Relying on Soviet, Western, and NGO archives, interviews with Soviet advisers and NGO workers, and Afghan sources, Timothy Nunan forges a vivid account of the impact of development on a country on the front lines of the Cold War. Nunan argues that Afghanistan functioned as a laboratory for the future of the Third World nation-state. If, in the 1960s, Soviets, Americans, and Germans sought to make a territorial national economy for Afghanistan, later, under military occupation, Soviet nation-builders, French and Swedish humanitarians, and Pakistani-supported guerrillas fought a transnational civil war over Afghan statehood. Covering the entire period from the Cold War to Taliban rule, Humanitarian Invasion signals the beginning of a new stage in the writing of international history.

Introduction
1. How to write the history of Afghanistan
2. Afghanistan's developmental moment?
3. States of exception, states of humanity
4. From Pashtunwali to communism?
5. Under a red veil
6. Borderscapes of denial
7. The little platoons of humanity
8. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Human rights [JPVH], The Cold War [HBTW], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], Development studies [GTF]