Ashley Jackson

I'd be remiss not to mention @anamarjona & @Ras_Karya They got me excited about insurgent governance to begin with. So many echoes of their work in my own work on the Taliban (but even divergences or my disagreements spurred new thinking) If I have to choose just one work...

As I was working through the Taliban’s evolution, I became increasingly curious about the performative aspects of insurgency. The main focus of most studies is insurgent violence. Rightly so. But acting like a state becomes at some point almost as important as waging war.

This often manifests in darkly, distractingly absurd ways (why are Talibs mimicking govt electricity bills down to the detail? Is there a Talib copyshop? ... Srsly tho: why all the effort?) But as any student of Foucault knows, real power lies in subtler forms of coercion...

Huge sigh of relief when I read @steven_metz on why people join insurgencies. It strains the bounds of typology b/c its messy, complicated Much like the thing it describes. (Which is probably why it's more useful most other typologies I've read...) http://smallwarsjournal.com/print/12195 

It’s important to have fierce role models in the academic wilderness. And no one is fiercer than the Notorious Nancy Hatch Dupree. So sharp, so much fun to read, so much love and respect for her subject and for Afghanistan. This is one of my favorites: http://www.afghandata.org:8080/xmlui/handle/azu/3092 …