Title
Under the Drones : Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands / Shahzad Bashir, Robert D Crews.
ISBN
9780674064768
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]
Copyright
©2012
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (336 p.) : 9 halftones, 3 line illustrations, 2 maps
Item Number
10.4159/harvard.9780674064768 doi
Dewey Decimal Classification
958.10471
Summary
In the West, media coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan is framed by military and political concerns, resulting in a simplistic picture of ageless barbarity, terrorist safe havens, and peoples in need of either punishment or salvation. Under the Drones looks beyond this limiting view to investigate real people on the ground, and to analyze the political, social, and economic forces that shape their lives. Understanding the complexity of life along the 1,600-mile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan can help America and its European allies realign their priorities in the region to address genuine problems, rather than fabricated ones. This volume explodes Western misunderstandings by revealing a land that abounds with human agency, perpetual innovation, and vibrant complexity. Through the work of historians and social scientists, the thirteen essays here explore the real and imagined presence of the Taliban; the animated sociopolitical identities expressed through traditions like Pakistani truck decoration; Sufism's ambivalent position as an alternative to militancy; the long and contradictory history of Afghan media; and the simultaneous brutality and potential that heroin brings to women in the area. Moving past shifting conceptions of security, the authors expose the West's prevailing perspective on the region as strategic, targeted, and alarmingly dehumanizing. Under the Drones is an essential antidote to contemporary media coverage and military concerns.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Sep 2020)
Frontmatter
Contents
Introduction
1. Political Struggles over the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands
2. The Transformation of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Border
3. Religious Revivalism across the Durand Line
4. Taliban, Real and Imagined
5. Quandaries of the Afghan Nation
6. How Tribal Are the Taliban?
7. Ethnic Minorities in Search of Political Consolidation
8. Red Mosque
9. Madrasa Statistics Don't Support the Myth
10. Will Sufi Islam Save Pakistan?
11. The Politics of Pashtun and Punjabi Truck Decoration
12. The Afghan Mediascape
13. Women and the Drug Trade in Afghanistan
Epilogue
Notes
Recommended Readings
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index
