imperial watch

For curious bystanders: the Afghanistan: A Special Issue, Nov 9, 2009, includes a short piece by me. I especially draw your attention to the Priya Satiya and Selig Harrison. And Stephen Walt. Ok, just read the whole forum. Related: Please see Basharat Peer, Outline of the Republic, The Review – National, Oct 22 2009.

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via Babu … Ahab the Arab: Sheikh of the Burning Sand, Ray Stevens, 1962 Silently through the night to the sultan’s tent where he would secretly meet up with Fatima of the Seven Veils, swingingest grade “A” number one US choice dancer in the sultan’s whole harem, ’cause, heh, him and her had a thing [...]

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Ahmad Shayeq Qassem, “Afghanistan: Imperatives of Stability Misperceived“. Iranian Studies, 42:2, 247-274. Similarly, while the Afghan government appeared keen to disarm the predo- minantly non-Pushtun armed groups in the north, northeast and west of the country, it actually distributed more arms to the mainly Pushtun eastern and southern provinces in an effort to institute what [...]

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Kamyar Abdi writes in his review of Small Players of the Great Game (Journal of Iranian Studies, Volume 42, Issue 2 April 2009): The Conclusion to the book is an insightful study of the different approaches of the Russians and the British to the Great Game, and the role of intermediate players in the game, [...]

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On October 1st, 1842 Lord Edward Law Ellenborough (1790-1871) issued a special proclamation from Simla, four years to the day after Lord Auckland had declared a war on Afghanistan. The Government of India directed its army to pass the Indus in order to expel from Affghanistan a chief believed to be hostile to British interest, [...]

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Beat extremists you can, says Obama, Anwar Iqbal, DawnTV, June 21, 2009 Any plan to visit Pakistan in the near future?’ ‘I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in [...]

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Via Moacir and thanks to the SMU digital collection, A Pocket Guide to Egypt, 1943. Democracy is a free, open way of life that is threatened by a system of oppression. That’s why we’re in this war. Democracy is built on the right of free choice – the right of man to worship God in [...]

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The future histories of empire will have to focus on the American penchant for building “secure embassies”. Take the 2009 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Pandemic Flu (pdf) [i love that list, btw]. Pakistan gets $2.3 billion (more than Iraq, Afghanistan or Flu). But towards what end, you ask? Well, it has $897 [...]

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Read what David Kilcullen, close advisor to General Petraeus, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee back in Feb: In Pakistan, we need to stop asking ourselves the question “Is Pakistan an enemy or an ally?” Pakistan is NOT the enemy. But we have enemies – as well friends – in Pakistan. We need to identify [...]

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James Traub’s cover-story, Can Pakistan be Governed? is actually fairly nuanced and one of the better things to have appeared in NYT recently. More important, is the cover image for the magazine. I like to compile short-lists of reigning conventional wisdoms on Pakistan, and this cover is a beauty. Check it: PERILOUS ANARCHIC BROKE VIOLENT [...]

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The flights had been going since 1956, even though they were in direct violation of Paris Convention of 1919, the Havana Convention of 1928 and the Chicago Convention of 1944. The first article of which states: “The contracting States recognize that every State has complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.” The [...]

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Question: Why is the NYT op-ed space available only to 1. Western Journalists writing a book on Islam/South Asia or 2. Pakistani novelists writing a novel on Pakistan? Color me jealous.

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In choosing this setting for the Ball, we have sought neither to excuse or dismiss any historical events, nor to support or challenge any interpretation now placed upon them. It is clear, however, that some people have found our reference to the British Empire to be distasteful. We are unhappy that any offence should have [...]

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Yesterday’s announcement that Zardari has made a deal with the TNSM and installed “Islamic government” in Swat is all over the news. I talked, briefly, with Jerome McDonald of Worldview today. My main point was that there exists a history – 1994, 1999, 2007 – of efforts to install a Shari-Nizam-e-Adl (Islamic Order of Justice) [...]

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Ultimately, we cannot tell either the Israelis or the Palestinians what’s best for them. – Obama talks to the Muslim World. Yes We Can, President Hussein! Yes We Can. Those are our bombs, our money, our technology sustaining an apartheid, imperial state. The drone-strikes are huge news – esp. since Gilani stood on the Parliament [...]

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