Taming the Imperial Imagination marks a novel intervention into the debate on empire and international relations, and offers a new perspective on nineteenth-century Anglo-Afghan relations. Martin J. Bayly shows how, t... more abstractTaming the Imperial Imagination marks a novel intervention into the debate on empire and international relations, and offers a new perspective on nineteenth-century Anglo-Afghan relations. Martin J. Bayly shows how, throughout the nineteenth century, the British Empire in India sought to understand and control its peripheries through the use of colonial knowledge. Addressing the fundamental question of what Afghanistan itself meant to the British at the time, he draws on extensive archival research to show how knowledge of Afghanistan was built, refined and warped by an evolving colonial state. This knowledge informed policy choices and cast Afghanistan in a separate legal and normative universe. Beginning with the disorganised exploits of nineteenth-century explorers and ending with the cold strategic logic of the militarised 'scientific frontier', this book tracks the nineteenth-century origins of contemporary policy 'expertise' and the forms of knowledge that inform interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere today. From the book cover: ‘Focusing on the shifting parameters of “knowledge communities,” this impressive book situates Afghanistan and the Afghan frontier in a multi-layered and evolving set of British Imperial and colonial policies and practices during the nineteenth century. It is essential reading for all students of modern Afghanistan and for those concerned with colonial knowledge formations and the history of imperialism.’ Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, Professor of History, James Madison University ‘According to Edward Said, “From travelers’ tales ... colonies were created.” In recent years scholars have explored the details of the dialectical relationship between colonial knowledge and imperial policy. In Taming the Imperial Imagination, Martin Bayly continues the work begun by Christopher Bayly on British information gathering in India, pushing the investigation north of the Durand Line into Afghanistan. Bayly reconstructs the images of Afghanistan upon which British officials drew in crafting their policy decisions. After discussing the work of the founding figures, he tracks the emergence after 1830 of a more unified concept of the Afghan polity. This book is an important contribution to the histories of British imperialism and Anglo-Afghan relations and to the rehistoricization of the International Relations discipline.’ George Steinmetz, Charles Tilly Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

History, Cultural History, International Relations, Sociology of Knowledge, Constructivism, and 6 more

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (2016)

This article offers a new perspective on ‘buffer states’ – states that are geographically located between two rival powers – and their effect on international relations with a particular focus on the imperial setting.... more abstractThis article offers a new perspective on ‘buffer states’ – states that are geographically located between two rival powers – and their effect on international relations with a particular focus on the imperial setting. The paper argues that such geographic spaces have often been analysed through a structuralist-functionalist lens, which has in some cases encouraged ahistorical understandings on the role of buffer states in international affairs. In contrast, the article offers an approach borrowing from the literature on ontological security and critical geopolitics in order to access the meanings that such spaces have for their more powerful neighbours. The paper draws upon the case study of Afghanistan and Anglo-Afghan relations during the nineteenth century and finds that in this case, due to the ambiguity of Afghanistan’s status as a ‘state’, and the failure of British policy-makers to establish routinized diplomatic engagement, Anglo-Afghan relations exhibited a sense of ontological insecurity for the British. These findings suggest previously unacknowledged international effects of ‘buffer states’, and may apply to such geographic spaces elsewhere.

Diplomatic History, International Relations, International Relations Theory, Foreign Policy Analysis, Critical Geopolitics, and 6 more

Publisher: Sage

Journal Name: European Journal of International Relations 21/4 (2015)

This article seeks to add to the exploration and development of Imperial History’s contribution to the discipline of International Relations (IR). Focusing on British perceptions of Afghanistan in the period preceding... more abstractThis article seeks to add to the exploration and development of Imperial History’s contribution to the discipline of International Relations (IR). Focusing on British perceptions of Afghanistan in the period preceding the first Anglo-Afghan war the article considers colonial knowledge as a source of identity construction, but in a manner that avoids deploying anachronistic concepts, in this case that of the Afghan ‘state’. This approach, which draws on the insights brought to IR by historical sociology, shows that engaging with Imperial History within IR can encourage a more reflexive attitude to core disciplinary categories. This not only reveals alternative approaches to the construction of specific political communities but it also allows for a more historicist mode in the use of history by IR as a discipline. Furthermore, by moving away from material based purely on diplomatic history, Afghanistan’s imperial encounter can be recovered from the dominance of ‘Great Game’ narratives, offering an account that is more appreciative of the Afghanistan context.

Diplomatic History, International Relations, Historical Sociology, Foreign Policy Analysis, Imperial History, and 4 more

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Journal Name: Review of International Studies 40/3 (2014)

Publication Date: Oct 23, 2013

Publication Name: Review of International Studies (Firstview)

Science and security

Publisher: ingentaconnect.com

Publication Date: Jan 1, 2009

Publication Name: St Antony's International Review

Afghanistan

Publication Date: May 10, 2011

Publication Name: Times Higher Education Supplement

Military History, Afghanistan, and Military culture

Publication Date: Mar 1, 2012

International Security, NATO, and Afghanistan

Publication Date: Jul 18, 2011

Diplomatic History, Conflict, and Afghanistan

Publication Date: May 28, 2012

This paper argues that ‘buffer states’ – states that are geographically located between two rival powers - have received inadequate attention in the International Relations literature. The existing works demonstrates ... more abstractThis paper argues that ‘buffer states’ – states that are geographically located between two rival powers - have received inadequate attention in the International Relations literature. The existing works demonstrates that ‘buffer states’ are geopolitical constructs par excellence yet there seems to be a serious deficit in literature that seeks to understand these zones of competition as a representational category, and also a failure to explore the meanings that such spaces have for their more powerful neighbours. The paper draws on a modified version of ‘ontological security’ in order to access the identity aspects of ‘buffer states’ as a representational category informing interstate relations, and to encourage an approach that is more cognizant of the co-constitution of these identities in relation to those rival powers competing over such regions. Ontological security allows consideration of how security-seeking between actors is in part the story of the search for cognitive stability and routinized behaviour, allowing for identity stability. The paper argues that in certain cases – including the example studied here - this routinized behaviour and this cognitive stability, can be hard to find. Cognitive instability in such instances can be conducive to ontological insecurity. This may be a particular problem with buffer states.

Diplomatic History, International Relations, Constructivism, Afghanistan, British Imperial and Colonial History (1600 - ), and 1 more

More Info: Paper Presented to the ISA Annual Convention 2013

Doctrine (Military Science), Sociology of the Military, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency(COIN), and Military culture

More Info: Paper presented to the British International Studies Association Annual Conference 2010

Journal Name: Research Professional

Taming the Imperial Imagination (Cambridge University Press) marks a novel intervention into the debate on empire and international relations, and offers a new perspective on nineteenth-century Anglo-Afghan relations.... more abstractTaming the Imperial Imagination (Cambridge University Press) marks a novel intervention into the debate on empire and international relations, and offers a new perspective on nineteenth-century Anglo-Afghan relations. Martin J. Bayly shows how, throughout the nineteenth century, the British Empire in India sought to understand and control its peripheries through the use of colonial knowledge. Addressing the fundamental question of what Afghanistan itself meant to the British at the time, he draws on extensive archival research to show how knowledge of Afghanistan was built, refined and warped by an evolving colonial state. This knowledge informed policy choices and cast Afghanistan in a separate legal and normative universe. Beginning with the disorganized exploits of nineteenth-century explorers and ending with the cold strategic logic of the militarized 'scientific frontier', this book tracks the nineteenth-century origins of contemporary policy 'expertise' and the forms of knowledge that inform interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere today.

History, International Relations, Historical Sociology, Sociology of Knowledge, Afghanistan, and 5 more