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Using a conflict model to analyse Majority-Minority relations (M-M), this paper focuses on the Hazara community in Afghanistan. Assuming M-M relations are power relations, the struggle for control among divergent ethnic groups has persisted. The Hazaras have historically resided in several provinces and experienced various forms of targeted violence. Millions have fled to other countries to escape persecution. This research diverges from dominant approaches that focus only on ethnicity and religion as the causes of violence against the Hazaras. Instead, the paper examines other factors that have been largely neglected by conflict studies literature. Based on historical data, the study finds that the Hazaras' geostrategic location in Afghanistan, their alliances with Pashtun tribes, and their struggle for autonomy have been the primary factors contributing to the targeted violence against them. Therefore, while ethnicity and religion may have made the Hazaras vulnerable to violence, they are not the main causes of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In years past, much of the discussion around International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law has been dedicated to considering the convergence of the two regimes; to discover a way to increase respect for the protection of the individual in armed conflict. Meanwhile, egregious violations of individual's human rights continue to occur in armed conflicts – those in Ukraine, Yemen, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and many others. This paper surveys the relationship between the two international disciplines, and considers that though IHL and IHRL are two regimes that have different aims, both contain norms that strive for the protection of the individual in armed conflict. Ultimately, this paper argues that protection of individuals in armed conflict can be strengthened by importing IHL norms into the IHRL framework. This cross-pollination allows treaty bodies to interpret, and make comments about, State Parties' adherence to IHL that can increase respect for those norms, given IHRL's associated enforcement mechanisms and communications machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Snakes and Ladders" is an ancient Indian board game played by the throw of dice or cowrie shells on a grid of labelled squares. It belongs to the category of "race games" and more specifically "promotion games" of moral instruction. The player gradually moves his piece upward from the lower section of vices and hellish states to the higher section of virtues and subtle spiritual states finally to reach the divine realm. Landing on snakes brings him down whereas by reaching ladders the ascent journey is accelerated. As a game of gnosis, Snakes and Ladders was played by Jainas, Hindus, Buddhists as well as Muslims. In Turkey, it is known as satranc-ı urefā and in the Arab world as shaṭranj al-ʿārifīn – "chess of the gnostics." The present paper examines a rare Sufi version from Afghanistan embroidered on cloth also highlighting the imagery of its figural motifs. Building on preceding studies, it focuses on the mystical terminology inscribed onto 101 squares which largely reflects the philosophy of Ibn al-ʿArabī. The investigated cloth-board is an example of Sufi material religion in folkish style which might date from the mid-twentieth century or later and appears to have been used by Shiʿite Sufis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates elections as the construction of a two-faceted field in a semi-urban area in Herat, western Afghanistan. Looking at Afghanistan's 2014 presidential and provincial council elections, the paper first surveys the elections as a discursive field. It tries to understand what the local people, given their historical and social contexts, said about the elections. The second facet examines the elections as a performative field, attempting to unpack how local actors enacted the elections. The paper shows that an election's discursive and performative framing needs to be situated in the wider historical and social contexts of a place. It also shows that in a place where there is greater freedom immediately following an oppressive era (for instance, that of the Taliban) and where there is egalitarianism among elites, the election is turned into a lively and unpredictable process where the discourse is marked by polyphony and instability, and the performance is characterized by mobilization of ties on various fronts and by shifting differentiation of local actors on political, generational, gender, and other grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historically important Kushan trilingual inscriptions of Dasht-e Nāwūr are revisited. The readings and interpretations of the bilingual DN I (Bactrian)—DN IV (Gāndhārī) are presented. Through careful analysis of the photos, paper rubbings and latex moulds of DN I published by Gérard Fussman in 1974, a reading of lines 7–13 is proposed which shows further significant parallels with known Kushan-period Bactrian inscriptions, supplementing the decipherment of lines 1–6 by Nicholas Sims-Williams. Furthermore, a comprehensive reading of the Gāndhārī version DN IV in Kharoṣṭhī script is proposed, which presents a true bilingual with DN I and corroborates our reading of DN I. Based on our reading of the bilingual DN I–DN IV, the inscriptions commemorate the arrival of Vema Taktu to Dasht-e Nāwūr, located in the Ghaznī province of Afghanistan, in Vema's fifteenth regnal year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is a part of a wider research on the Ismaili identity, peculiarities of the Ismailis' self-identification in various parts of the world under different historical circumstances. The ambiguous status of the Ismailis in Afghanistan turned to be particularly problematic by the end of the 19th century when the Pashtuns became dominant in the traditionally Ismaili-inhabited areas. In a hostile milieu, under severe persecutions, the local Ismaili identity acquired a tendency of unification with other ethno-religious identities, the principle of taqiyya having been widely spread. Since then, the Ismailis became especially dependent on the political situation in Afghanistan and the policy of its rulers towards ethnic and religious minorities. The War of 1979-1989 turned to be the most dramatic episode in the history of the Ismaili community in Afghanistan when its very survival appeared to be questioned: Ismaili intellectuals left the region, and lower social layers got involved in drug cultivation and trafficking. Supporting any of the conflict's sides could have led to a community tragedy, possibly to its complete annihilation. The limited information we obtained, including the memoirs of the Afghan War veterans, demonstrate the identity split in the Ismaili community of Afghanistan whose members were fighting on the opposite sides of the armed conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1957, eight intact and well-preserved lustre-painted ceramics were found in a cache during the excavation of a private residence at Ghazni by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan. The lustre-painted stonepaste specimens were retrieved from a sealed archaeological context. They were certainly imported from Iran between the mid-12th and the early 13th century and therefore constitute an exceptional example of a collection of lustrewares assembled shortly after their production date. However, the vessels remain understudied and got lost during the second half of the 20th century, as it happened to many other finds from the same site. For the first time, the present paper offers a thorough analysis of this lot, its stylistic and epigraphic features, based on the graphic and photographic documentation dating from the time of the excavation and on extensive comparisons with specimens kept in international collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghanistan is the country in the world with the most SALW (small arms and light weapons). Contrary to what is usually assumed, the proliferation of modern firearms in the country did not start in the 1980s, but at the end of the 19th century, when Pashtun tribes acquired modern rifles and ammunition through a variety of means, mostly through smuggling. The paper investigates the illegal arms trade from the Gulf to the north-western Indian Frontier, an area of crucial importance for British imperial strategists and the Government of India, at a time of great power rivalry and a relative decline of Britain's global influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay examines four files from the U.S. National Archives dealing with information management in Afghanistan at the onset of the Cold War. The files describe the structure of information dissemination by the U.S. in Kabul, providing considerable detail about the materials distributed, their varying appeal to local communities and constituencies, and their function in the larger ideological competition with the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the research potential of archaeological collections gathered in 1949–1951 in southern Afghanistan and currently stored in the United States. Included in these materials is an unpublished archaeological survey from the area south of the modern-day city of Kandahar, as well as assemblages from test excavations at the sites of Deh Morasi Ghundai and Said Qala, which have not been studied. An argument is made for a new study of this material along with a reanalysis of the Shamshir Ghar collection in order to question the paradigm of Afghanistan as only a reflection of other cultures in the ancient world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian domestic legal framework related to war crimes is characterised by several shortcomings. It is still largely centred on the provisions present in the 1941 wartime military criminal code, which have not been subjected to substantial legal restyling, regardless of the explicit and implicit obligations of domestic criminalization inferred from treaties ratified by Italy. Only in 2001–2002, at the time of Italian military operations in Afghanistan, were certain amendments to this code introduced, in order to partly adapt its content to current rules of international humanitarian law and international criminal law. However, such solutions have not brought about effective harmonization and were drafted within an incoherent legal framework, made even more complex by subsequent reforms addressing military missions abroad, thus resulting in the current unsatisfactory scenario which would require substantive reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses three Afghan posters as a source of information on the political system between 1978 and 1992 and its internal dynamics. The posters are an integral part of Afghan visual culture and at the same time they are an inseparable element of the broader propaganda culture developed by communist parties. Consequently, such categories as unity, utility and wishful thinking characteristic for the socialist realist art and propaganda put the posters in the broadly understood phenomenon of Orwellian newspeak. To discuss their Orwellian dimension theoretical tools developed by Umberto Eco have been applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor mentions various reports within the issue such as the six papers from the winners and finalists of the Best Paper Competition for agribusiness, five standard research articles, and a case study by Dr. Cheryl Wachenheim on war-torn Afghanistan.

Asef Soltanzadah is one of the most thought-provoking Afghan writers. His work, set exclusively during wartime, may be characterized by both seriousness and playfulness. To borrow Warren Motte's words, "playing in earnest" is his literary signature. Yet, he occupies a marginal place within the institution of world literature not only because he writes in Persian but also because he is minimally translated and read. In this article, I turn to two of his short stories featuring a game of cards and kite flying, setting them into conversation with theories of play. I argue that by creating a space for play, Soltanzadah brings into visibility and reflects on the process, promise and risk of transforming mere life into life world within the time and space of war, challenging the theoretical framing of play in relation to the real world while questioning the possibility of worlding in the time of war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 2018, then U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton delivered a speech that ushered in a new, more aggressive era of U.S. foreign policy vis-à-vis the International Criminal Court (ICC). Washington's disapprobation over the ICC's interest in the alleged crimes of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan has been seen as the cause for this change. While this is certainly partly true, little attention has been paid to Fatou Bensouda's prosecutorial behaviour as an explanatory factor. Using the framework from David Bosco's Rough Justice , this article demonstrates that a distinct shift in prosecutorial behaviour occurred when Fatou Bensouda took over as Chief Prosecutor. In contrast to Luis Moreno Ocampo's strategic approach, avoidant of U.S. interests, Bensouda's apolitical approach directly challenged the U.S. This shift in prosecutorial behaviour ruptured the 'mutual accommodation' that previously characterised the ICC-U.S. relationship and, in turn, produced the shift in U.S. policy that now marginalises the Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article places into question the scope of judicial control over the Prosecutor's decision whether or not to investigate a situation. It addresses the on-going tensions between the Pre-Trial Chambers and the Prosecutor for the control of the procedure which will determine the stage of the initiation of an investigation. It commences with an examination of the Chambers' approach to the authorisation of the Prosecutor's request to commence a proprio motu investigation. Then, it critically analyses the lack of judicial mechanisms of control over the Prosecutor's decision not to commence an investigation under Article 15. The second part investigates the judicial oversight of the Prosecutor's decision not investigate referred situation. It analyses whether the Pre-Trial Chamber may reassess the factual allegations used by the Prosecutor not to start the investigation, and whether the Prosecutor has to comply with (strict) instructions provided by the judicial review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how 'international criminal lawfare' (ICLf) has the potential to be a tool either to usher in a foundation of trust necessary to establish positive peace or to negatively affect post-conflict justice enterprises. It argues that problems that arise from ICLf through self-referrals to the ICC can be alleviated if the Court would not need to rely on the cooperation and goodwill of parties to the conflict to pursue its investigations. Using the case study of the ICC's Uganda intervention, it contends that, despite its potential, the use of ICLf will not likely signal anything positive in situations where the judicial organ relies on a party to the conflict because the integrity of the process is undermined. This message is important in light of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber's rejection of the Prosecutor's request to investigate alleged crimes committed in Afghanistan on the basis of a lack of cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to 2001, Beijing faithfully observed the principles of neutrality and non-interference regarding Afghanistan, yet it has become one of the key actors in appeasing the conflict, especially since 2014. Numerous scholars suggest that China's U-turn is related to the potential threat posed by the Uygur separatists in Afghanistan. This study suggests an alternate motive; namely, that Afghanistan's strategic location—the heart of Central and South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia—drives China's increased interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Khataks' Chronicle compiled by the Pashtun tribal rulers Khūshḥāl Khān (d. 1689) and Afżal Khān (d. circa 1740/41) abounds in figures, which relate to calculation of people and things, as well as measurement of time and distances. Within dominant human statistics the most numerous and diverse in numbers are calculations of military strength, often divided into main arms (foot, horse, guns), and war losses. Demographical data proper include numbers of descendants in lineages and occasional statistics of tribal populace. Among frequently calculated things are money (in Mogul rupees) and cattle. Time intervals in tribal stories are usually short and measured generally in nights and days, while distances between key geographical objects--in kurūhs (≈ 2-2,2 km). Although most figures are likely to be approximate (usually round after 20), The Crhonicle's authors aimed at being very careful with all numerical data, which, on the whole, are to be considered historically adequate. Almost all basic lexemes of Pashto numbers are found in The Chronicle. The largest numbers are sums of money in rupees related to the Moguls' military budgets (1,700,000; 900,000; etc.). Of particular note are archaic forms of hundreds (dwaṣu, terṣu, etc.) and reflexes of vigesimal calculation. Numerical data in The Khataks' Chronicle well describe the place, which elementary arithmetic occupied in the education of Pashtun tribal rulers in the mediaeval and pre-modern times and may serve as a primary resource for studying the inventory of numbers in early written Pashto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on women of Afghanistan and exploration of aesthetics of social change across boundaries of time and space among myriad agents operating in disparate centers of cultural gravity.