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Afghanistan's Future as Seen from Hindustan's Military Past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2014
Abstract
This article stems from an informal inquiry into how military history was employed in British and North American centres for higher military education to prepare officers for deployment to Afghanistan. The discussions were conducted with professional military educators who were actively teaching in institutions tasked with educating middle and senior ranking officers. When questioned about course reading materials and texts, there was little commonality of approach between the three North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies. There was, however, a common working assumption that the only applicable military history lessons were those drawn from the three Anglo-Afghan Wars fought in 1839–1842, 1878–1880 and 1919 respectively.
When asked about the linkages of Afghanistan to Pakistan and the wider South Asian region, there was a begrudging admission that the war in Afghanistan could not be fought in isolation and that any lasting peace had to be considered within a greater regional framework. Yet when it was posited that there may be benefit to a wider approach to the applicability of regional military history, those queried could see little to no benefit in considering any military history lessons but those derived from the three previously cited Anglo-Afghan Wars. This paper suggests that if military history has a useful role to play in contemporary conflict analysis and, more importantly, professional military education, then there is merit in considering a wider historic canvas and that the events of Hindustan's military past lend themselves to such an application.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2014
References
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2 ISAF is a NATO controlled military force that came into being as the result of legislative action taken by the United Nations Security Council. ISAF's official website can be found at: http://www.isaf.nato.int/
3 The First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars are considered as 1839–1842 and 1878–1880 respectively.
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62 Appendix B, U.S. Funds for Afghanistan Reconstruction, pp. 202–203; John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), SIGAR Quarterly Report to the United States Congress, 30 April 2013. The post of SIGAR was established under the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008 (Public Legislation 110–181). In the table above, the agency sponsor for the Afghanistan Security Forces Fund (ASFF), as well as that for training and equipment, is the U.S. Department of Defense.
63 Aka Pathans
64 “Pay returns placed before the board, 29 Dec 1804”, Maharashtra State Archives, Bombay Military Dept., Military Board Diary, 1804, no.76.
65 Aka Gujarat