Identities in Afghanistan – Afghan IdentitiesIngeborg Baldauf und and Conrad Schetter

ASIEN – Nr. 104 (2007) pp. 7–8

The attacks of September 11 catapulted Afghanistan into the centre of international awareness. The international intervention and the collapse of the Taliban regime opened for the first time since decades the chance for peace building and a reconstruction of the country. Since 2001 thousands of soldiers, aid workers, consultants and politicians rushed into the country to establish stability and to initiate development. Along with them, hundreds of journalists and other observers have, with varying degrees of seriousness and insight, collected and broadcast information about current political and martial developments. Along with this high tide of attention whose thematic agenda is set by practical goals, the „relatively peaceful“ situation of the country has also encouraged scholars to do research in Afghanistan. While over the last 25 years only very few researchers had trodden Afghan ground – so that work stagnated in most fields, or had to be confined to materials acquired before wartime or outside the country –, researchers of the pre-war generation now revived their activities and, which is most encouraging, many young scholars made Afghanistan the area of their interest. At the same time topics that do not necessitate research at place, but pertain to the past and present of Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora, are attracting more and more attention on this part of young researchers…