Overview

This book explores various dimensions of recent international relations scholarship, taking the case of Afghanistan as a point of departure for discussion of these different themes. Contributors investigate a broad range of topics, including international relations theory, the nature of global order, ‘othering’ discourses, diplomacy, international law, the transformation of war, terrorism, gender politics, social media, state building, democratisation, refugee movements, globalisation, and historical lessons. The Afghanistan case helps illuminate the complexities of all these areas of analysis, and the book takes the analysis of Afghanistan in new directions. Theoretically, the authors interrogate the Afghanistan case’s implications for international relations, and vice-versa, by integrating multiple and complementary global or structural, state or institutional, and behaviouralist or leader-centric lenses. Conceptually, the chapters bridge the gap between theory and practice, thus reflecting the emergence of a problem-oriented approach to international relations scholarship. Methodologically, the research design employed by the authors is best characterised as ‘analytical eclecticism’. The majority of contributors originate from Afghanistan, something which again makes this book notable, and all three editors have extensive experience from time spent in Afghanistan. Using the Afghan case to explicate the importance of the relevance of theory and its related concepts to international relations studies, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of international relations, Asian and Middle East Studies.

Full Product Details

Author:   William Maley (The Australian National University) ,  Ali Yawar Adili ,  Paul Lushenko (U.S. Army War College, U.S.)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.740kg
ISBN:  

9781032964003

ISBN 10:   1032964006
Pages:   298
Publication Date:   19 August 2025
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Foreword 1. Afghanistan and International Relations: An Introduction Part I: Foundations 2. Afghanistan and the Legitimacy of Global Order 3. Exiting Afghanistan: Presidential Narratives, US Exceptionalism, and ‘Othering’ Afghans Part II: Frameworks 4. Afghanistan and Diplomacy with the Taliban: From Engagement to Recognition 5. Afghanistan and International Law Part III: Conflict 6. Afghanistan and the Transformation of War 7. The US and Afghanistan’s Warlords: A Fraught Partnership with Lasting Consequences Part IV: Transnational linkages 8. Afghanistan and Global Gender Politics 9. Afghanistan: How the Virtual Bazaar Undermined the Democratisation Process Part V: Statebuilding 10. Statebuilding in Afghanistan: A State-Society Relational Approach 11. Afghanistan and Democratisation Part VI: Past and future 12. Afghanistan, Refugees and Forced Migration 13. Afghanistan, Social Imaginaries, and Globalisation 14. Afghanistan and the Lessons of History

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Author Information

William Maley is Emeritus Professor of Diplomacy at The Australian National University and author of Transition in Afghanistan: Hope, Despair and the Limits of Statebuilding (2018). Ali Yawar Adili is a non-resident Fellow at New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation. He holds a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York. Paul Lushenko is a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University and Assistant Professor at the U.S. Army War College.

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