Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780674065611)

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.

Author: Shahzad Bashir
ISBN-10: 0674065611
ISBN-13: 9780674065611
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Language: English
Published: 05/14/2012
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.16lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.88w x 1.04d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/05/2012 pg. 60
Foreword 08/30/2012
Choice 12/01/2012
New York Review of Books 05/23/2013 pg. 23