Last week on 21 and 22 March, an international team of researchers, headed by Professor Alessandro Monsutti in collaboration with Antonio Donini, from the Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, came to the Graduate Institute for a workshop entitled “Afghanistan in Perspective: Understanding Social Change”. The event, sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation, is the beginning phase of a wider project which will explore how humanitarian action has affected Afghan society and conversely how involvement in Afghanistan has contributed to reshape the humanitarian enterprise worldwide over the last 35 years. The project will explore what the Afghan case reveals about humanitarianism globally and what policy lessons can be learned.

“Afghanistan is key to the understanding of global humanitarian processes and new forms of governance”, Professor Alessandro Monsutti said. “It has been a priority in terms of budget for humanitarian organisations, such as the International Committee for the Red Cross, over the last 30 years.”

Among the focuses of the project will be the progressive increase in security measures by humanitarian organisations and how this affects their interactions with local populations who they are there to assist. Another focus will be on brokers of information and how perceptions travel between international humanitarian workers, local staff and aid recipients. Rights and the local perceptions of injustice will be another avenue for research.

The event included Professors Gilles Carbonnier and Davide Rodogno as well as PhD students from the Institute, but also researchers from a mix of disciplines coming from Paris, London, Manchester and Bonn.

According to Professor Monsutti, the research could take the form of a single proposal or a federation of projects involving several institutional partners in Afghanistan, Europe and North America. The projects’ results will include digital visual archives, collections of life histories and more, said Professor Monsutti.

“This research will have a comparative dimension and be of interest not only to academics but also to policy makers and non AfPak specialists,” said Professor Monsutti. “Afghanistan provides us with the best opportunity to understand humanitarianism globally through a historical lense.”

Alessandro Monsutti has been an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Development at the Institute since 2010. He specialises in the Afghanistan / Pakistan region and has been carrying out research there since the mid-1990s.



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