The Taliban and the humanitarian soldier: Configurations of freedom and humanity in Afghanistan

Humanitarian wars are a primary means of globally affirming a specific model of humanity, built according to the cultural, moral, and economic standards of Western democracies. How are forms of humanity produced in the context of humanitarian war in Afghanistan? How are notions of freedom mobilized? How does the idea of a prospective humanity relate to the use of military force? In an attempt to reflect on the different configurations of freedom and humanity that emerged in the context of recent Afghanistan conflicts and international interventions, this article addresses the perspective of two key figures: the Taliban and the humanitarian soldier. Building on narratives such as poetry, interviews, and conversations conducted during fieldwork, this angle allows us to observe the complexity of the Afghan humanitarian theatre in a way that goes beyond mere assessments of political and economic interests, revealing a fragment of global contemporaneity that is crucial for understanding how processes of producing humanity combine with war and humanitarian efforts.Le guerre umanitarie sono un mezzo efficace per affermare, a livello globale, un modello specifico di umanità, definito in base agli standard culturali, morali ed economici delle democrazie occidentali. Quali forme di umanità sono prodotte nel contesto della guerra umanitaria in Afghanistan? In che modo sono utilizzate differenti idee di libertà? Come si relaziona l’uso della forza militare all’idea di una umanità in divenire? Nel tentativo di riflettere sulle diverse configurazioni di libertà e umanità emerse nell’ambito dei recenti conflitti e dell’intervento internazionale in Afghanistan, questo articolo esplora la prospettiva di due figure chiave: il “talebano” e il “soldato umanitario”. Utilizzando poesia, interviste e conversazioni condotte durante la ricerca sul campo, l’articolo affronta la complessità del teatro umanitario afgano andando oltre mere analisi di interesse politico ed economico rivelando un frammento della contemporaneità fondamentale per capire come processi di produzione di umanità si intrecciano alla guerra e all’umanitarismo

Temporal mystic and religious love : the poetry of the Taliban

Mina/Mohabbat oraz ishq to dwa pasztuńskie wyrazy używane do określenia dwóch rodzajów miłości. Pierwszy stosuje się względem miłości bardziej ludzkiej, podczas gdy drugi – względem miłości bardziej mistycznej. W artykule starałem się przeanalizować poezję Talibów, zwracając szczególną uwagę na te dwa typy uczuć – ludzki i boski. Przyczyną, dla której zdecydowałem się zająć tym tematem, jest fakt, iż większość badaczy zajmująca się fenomenem tejże poezji, zwraca większą uwagę na jej polityczny, propagandowy i religijny przekaz, i niewiele uwagi poświęcają jej 'ludzkiemu' wymiarowi. Stąd też postanowiłem przedstawić kilka wierszy ze zbioru "Poetry of the Taliban" autorstwa Alexa Strick van Linschotena i Felixa Kuehna (Gurgaon 2012), wzbogacając wywód o własne komentarze.Mina/Mohabbat and ishq are two Pashto words used to name two kinds of love. The first one is more human while the second is for divine or mystical one. In this paper I tried to analyse poetry of the Taliban, paying special attention to the question of the afore-mentioned kinds of love – human, divine and religious. I decided to do that because till now most of the researchers working on the Talibanʼs songs, focused more on its political, propaganda and religious message, with very little work dedicated to its 'human' character. This is why, I have presented several poems selected from the collection "Poetry of the Taliban" by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn (Gurgaon 2012) and enhanced my study with some comments

Krig i Afghanistan gennem fire årtier: En analyse af udviklingen i historieskrivningen

Denne artikel giver en historiografisk oversigt dækkende krigene i Afghanistan. Den er begrænset til perioden 1979-2014, hvor især den amerikanske interesse i landet har præget historieskrivningen. Denne er som altid præget af sin samtid, og artiklen er skrevet med henblik på at danne en historiografisk ramme om fire årtiers forskellige konflikter og krige i landet

Terrorism and the Crime of Aggression Under the Rome Statute

Terrorism seems to be accepted as a grave act of International concern, but has not yet been accommodated explicitly in the International Criminal Court (ICC). This article explores the prospect of including terrorism under the crime of aggression in cases transcending boundaries, by examining whether terrorism can fit into its\u27 elements. While terrorism can be conducted by state and non-state actors, it will be shown that it is possible for states committing terrorism to have their officials prosecuted for the crime of aggression. For the more infamous terrorism by non-state actors, however, do not seem to satisfy the required elements. Terorisme sudah diterima sebagai kejahatan yang menjadi perhatian Internasional, tetapi belum diakomodasi secara eksplisit dalam hukum pidana Internasional melalui Mahkamah Pidana Internasional (ICC). Artikel ini akan mengamati kemungkinan memasukkan terorisme dalam tindak pidana agresi, terutama dalam kasus terorisme yang melampaui batas-batas Negara. Artikel ini akan mengamati konsep tindak pidana agresi dalam Statuta Roma, dan melihat apakah terorisme dapat memenuhi unsur-unsurnya. Ternyata walaupun terorisme oleh actor non-negara lebih terkenal, tapi konsep terorisme dapat memuat terorisme oleh Negara juga. Akan dijelaskan bagaimana kejahatan agresi bisa jadi dikenakan pada terorisme oleh Negara, tetapi justru tidak pada terorisme oleh aktor non-negara

Reintegrating Armed Groups in Afganistan, Lessons From the Past

Discussing DDR in Afghanistan mightseem incongruous as fighting rages between government forces and a potent insurgency. Indeed, with international forces drawing down and presidential electionsscheduled for April introducing further uncertainty, there are more Afghans arming than disarming.This may change, however.While a deal with the Taliban currently appearsremote, were the new government to succeed in forging one, itssustainability would hinge on the reintegration of tens of thousands of fighters. If international funding for the Afghan National Security Forces(ANSF) declines, those soldiers and police laid off would need to find alternative livelihoods—no small challenge given the state of the economy. Reduced international funding toward Afghan security spending after 2014 could also leave thousands of members of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF) and private security companiesjobless. In these scenarios,DDR would again become a

Solo Exhibition: The Mountains of Majeed

The Mountains of Majeed is a reflection on the end of 'Operation Enduring Freedom' in Afghanistan through photography, found imagery and Taliban poetry. Edmund Clark examines the experience of the vast majority of military personnel and contractors who have serviced Enduring Freedom without ever engaging the enemy. He distils their war down to a concise series of photographs of the two views they have of Afghanistan: what they see of the country over the walls or through the wire of their bases, and what they see of pictorial representations within the enclaves that they never leave. At Bagram Airfield, the largest American base in Afghanistan, and formerly home to 40,000, the view, both outside and inside, is dominated by the mountains of the Hindu Kush. Set against their looming presence, Clark's photographs from his time spent embedded with the U.S. military, expose the dystopian relationship between the man-made landscape of Bagram and the country beyond its walls. Evoking the intangible, yet intensely felt presence of the mountains beyond, and the unseen insurgents they hide, Clark's quiet and contemplative images portray an alternative narrative to the one ordinarily presented by the media. Clark's photographs capture the visual mirroring of the distant views within the base. Echoes of the surrounding landscape are found in the craters formed by construction work, peaks of refuse-strewn razor wire and the precisely ordered vistas of military tents. Inside the buildings of the base, the landscape is simulated by murals and artworks, representing another view of Afghanistan. On the walls of a dining facility, a series of paintings signed by an artist named 'Majeed' project a romantic vision of its lush mountain passes and lakes. Reflecting on the significance of the paintings' location on an American base, Clark says:"How many tens of thousands of pairs of western eyes have registered the pastoral peace of these mountainscapes? Has anyone considered what they say of the country they are playing a part in occupying?" In this exhibition, Majeed's paintings have been reproduced as a series of picture postcards. Likening them to mementos for souvenir hunters of an idealized touristic landscape, Clark's appropriation of the paintings offers a powerful reminder that the mountains remain out of Western reach. "There is distance between these mountains. Vistas of tranquillity fabricated by hand from canvas, wood and paint. Images from an enclave captured in high resolution by the latest digital technology. Two cultures divided by landscape and time. Ever present mountains forever beyond boots confined for a duration, within walls of occupation, on a ground of gravel and tarmac. And there is convergence. Both are mountains of the imagination. Both are representations of enduring freedom; and in both the mountains belong to Majeed." - Edmund Clark The exhibition features the first installation of 'The Victory Column of Enduring Freedom'. This monument to the notion of victory in the war in Afghanistan is a reference to Emperor Trajan’s column in the forum in Rome (a copy of which is in the Cast Courts of the V&A Museum, London). It is a monument to his campaigns in Dacia, modern-day Romania, recording significant events through relief sculpture scenes spiralling up the column. The form of the spiralled column has been re-used and reinterpreted through history as an icon of victory; perhaps most notably for the victory column of Napoleon’s Grande Armée in Place Vendome, Paris, made from captured Russian and Austrian cannons. Razor wire and aggregate are materials commonly used for the perimeter security and surface imprint of enclaves of occupation in the War on Terror

COIN is dead - long live transformation

Donald Rumsfeld was right. Force transformation works. The techniques that led to the initial victories in Afghanistan in 2001 were precisely those that produced success in Libya in 2011.1 Small-scale deployments of special forces backed by precision strike and deep attack capabilities used to support an allied indigenous armed group proved an effective military tool for achieving specific strategic outcomes. In contrast, the results of large-scale troop deploy- ments as part of counterinsurgency (COIN), stabilization and nation-building activities over the past ten years in Iraq and Afghanistan have been less defini- tive. Despite intensive investment in blood, treasure, and military effort, the precise long-term outcomes of these two campaigns remain unclear and will be open to debate for years to come. This challenging operational experience has, however, highlighted some necessary and enduring truths about the use of military force. This paper explores those in light of the last ten years of counterinsurgenc

Book Review (My Life with the Taliban )

My Life with the Taliban’ is the autobiography (written in 21 small chapters along with an epilogue and assisted by Character List in the beginning and a Chronolgyy and Glossory at the end) of Abdul Salam Zaeef who was the Taliban’s ambassador to Pakistan in 2001 and one of the most well-known faces of the movement following the 9-11 attacks and a principal actor in its domestic and foreign affairs.. The book has been translated for the first time from the Pashto, which shares more than a personal history of an unusual life. The recent history of Afghanistan is the focus of this traumatic life story. It is an account about how a poor village boy ended up being the ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan, and thus being kidnapped; in defiance to all human and international conventions, and remained under arrest in Guantanamo, returning to Kabul in 2005 as a so- called reconciled Taliban to be used by the Afghan government as a conduit for talks. There he regrew his long black beard, acquired an iPhone and wrote this memoir.&nbsp

International Terrorism in Afghanistan (2000-2018)

Los ataques terroristas en Afganistán han ido in crescendo desde el inicio de la intervención internacional. Existen más de diez grupos terroristas, pero los talibanes ostentan el monopolio de la violencia terrorista. El objetivo de los talibanes es recuperar el poder político para volver a instaurar un régimen teocrático extremista en el país, por lo que sus objetivos se circunscriben únicamente a un entorno geográfico determinado: el territorio afgano. Los talibanes tienen como objetivo volver a dirigir las instituciones afganas y para ello han emprendido una campaña de terror a través de atentados contra la población civil, las fuerzas internacionales y las instituciones afganas, actuando como un tipo de organizaciones terrorista híbrida. El pacto firmado con los Estados Unidos, por el que se acuerda la retirada de las tropas norteamericanas, sitúa a los talibanes más cerca de conseguir su objetivo. Afganistán es el segundo país del mundo en número de atentados y la afgana es la segunda nacionalidad que cuenta más muertes por ataques terroristas. El principal responsable es el grupo talibán, pero no podemos obviar que el terrorismo en el país es consecuencia directa de la intervención de los Estados Unidos y sus aliados en 2001. Tras casi veinte años de guerra, el terror se ha convertido en una dinámica habitual para la sociedad civil afgana, que vive acostumbrada al horror del conflicto mientras espera una paz que nunca llega.Terrorist attacks have grown in Afghanistan since 2001. There are more than ten terrorist groups, but the Taliban has the hegemony of the violence in the country. Taliban´s main aim is to recover the politic power to set up a theocratic regime again in Afghanistan. With the purpose of achieving this goal, the Taliban has begun a terror campaign against civil society, international forces and Afghan institutions, behaving like a terrorist hybrid organization. The agreement entered into with the United States, according to which American troops are to leave Afghanistan, places the Taliban closer to achieving their objective. Afghanistan is the second country with the highest number of terrorist attacks and killed people in the world. The Taliban group is mostly responsible for this, but we cannot leave out that terrorism in Afghanistan is a consequence of the United States’ intervention. After almost twenty years of war, the Afghan society has become used to living in a terror system while they await for peace.Dossier: Ponencias del I Congreso Internacional en Seguridad y Políticas de Defensa “Dinámicas de Seguridad: Retos y prioridades" (Madrid, noviembre 2019)Instituto de Relaciones Internacionale