Rendering Afghanistan legible

Borders, frontiers and the ‘state’ of Afghanistan

Bibliographic Data

ID6353531
AuthorsNivi Manchanda
Year2017
Volume37
Issue4
Pages386-401
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3268 • E-ISSN: 1467-9256
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0263395717716013
OpenAlexW2740463796
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited31

The aim of this article is to show how the partial colonisation of Afghanistan and its ‘frontier status’ have generated discourses of state failure, which have led to the construal of Afghanistan as a zone of exception and of permanent crisis. The main argument is that colonial spatialisations have an enduring legacy that continues to structure the ways in which we experience and think about the Afghan state today. The construction of Afghanistan today as a ‘failed state’ has emerged through a historical (Anglophone) discourse that has relied heavily on the trope of the ‘frontier’ to make sense of the place between India and Central Asia. Thus, the ‘frontier’ has played a formative role in defining Afghanistan as a state and space and this plays out in how we interact – through representation, policies, and intervention – with the state in the global realm today. The import of this extends far and wide and has ramifications for our understanding of coloniality and liminality in contemporary international relations (IR), including scholarship on sovereignty statehood, and borders. It also has implications for a range of states and places that are considered ‘fragile’, ‘failing’, or ‘failed

Afghan · Colonialism · Frontier · Liminality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Realm · Scholarship · Sociology · Sovereignty · State (computer science · Anthropology · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Philippine History and Culture · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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