Asia
S2E3: Kazakhstan's Past & Present
HbN Guest: Dr. Assel Tutumlu
Author of: Multilateralism in Global Governance: Formal and Informal Institutions
About Our Guest: Dr. Tutumulu is a professor in the Department of Economics and Administrative Sciences at the Near East University in Turkey. She has published widely about her homeland, Kazakhstan, and is a contributor to Kazakhstan in the Making: Legitimacy, Symbols, and Social Changes (Contemporary Central Asia: Societies, Politics, and Cultures).
In the news: mass protests in Kazhastan and Russian troops intervention
In this episode (Jan. 21, 2022):
- Who are Kazakhs?
- Why does Mr. Putin state that Kazakhs "had never had statehood"?
- Ethnic Russian population of Kazakhstan.
- Nursultan Nazarbayev - Kazakhstan's extremely powerful politician and autocrat.
- What ignited this latest mass uprising in Kazakhstan?
- Rampant corruption in Kazakhstan.
- Russian troops in Kazakhstan.
- Kazakhstan's post-Soviet alliance.
- Business of petroleum.
- Kazakhstan's importance to China.
S1E34: WHO ARE THE TALIBAN? WERE AFGHANS GOOD COMMUNISTS?
HbN Guest: Dr. Timothy Nunan
Author of: Humanitarian Invasion: Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan (Global and International History)
About Our Guest: Prof. Nunan is a lecturer in the Department of Global History at the Free University of Berlin. He leads a Volkswagen Foundation Research Group devoted to the history of Islamism during the Cold War. In his work, he looks at how actors from the former Soviet Union, Iran, and Afghanistan have sought to challenge the Western-dominated world order.
In the news: The Taliban are now firmly in control of Afghanistan. But how will they govern?
In this episode (Oct. 8, 2021):
- Who are the Taliban?
- How the Taliban movement is in opposition to other ethnic groups.
- Taliban's rural war against the urban elite.
- Afghanistan's deep dependence on foreign subsidies to survive.
- Islamist Internationalism Between the Cold War and Decolonization
- How Iran's 1979 revolution changed the history of political Islam.
- The Taliban are not interested in internationalism.
- Impact of NGO's long presence in Afghanistan.
- Humanitarian Invasion?
S1E30: Comparing America's Saigon Rooftop Moment in Vietnam to Our Afghanistan Exit
HbN Guest: Dr. William Thomas Allison
Author of: American Military History: A Survey From Colonial Times to the Present
About Our Guest: Dr. Allison is a recipient of the Department of the Army Meritorious Public Service Medal and is a former Vice President of the Society for Military History. He is a former Chair in Military History, the US Army War College, and a former member of the Army Historical Advisory Committee. He has written and co-authored several books on military history, including My Lai: An American Atrocity in the Vietnam War (Witness to History).
In the news: America's war in Afghanistan is officially over. Now, America's ignominious exit!
In this episode (Sept. 10, 2021):
- War is difficult, but ending wars is more difficult.
- What American military colleges teach about ending wars.
- What does war termination look like? What should it look like?
- How did the Soviets end their occupation of Afghanistan?
- How did America end its occupation of Iraq?
- In Vietnam, we made a political decision - a sound political decision - not to win!
- Vietnam's government: "We can't win with you and we can't win without you".
- In Vietnam, we were at war, but pretended like we were not!
- Why do we tend to win battles but lose wars?
- Vietnam's exit compared to our Afghanistan exit.
S1E22: Afghanistan's History
HbN Guest: Dr. Shah Mahmoud Hanifi
Author of: Deciphering the History of Modern Afghanistan
About Our Guest: Dr. Hanifi is a professor of Central and South Asia and Middle Eastern studies at James Madison University. He has published widely on Afghanistan's history from the 16th century, including his book Connecting Histories in Afghanistan.
In the news: Afghanistan is on the news, undoubtedly because we fear the worst - that the Taliban will reclaim Afghanistan after we leave!
In this episode (Jul. 16, 2021):
- Who are Afghans?
- When did Afghanistan become an independent nation?
- "Graveyard of Empires"
- How did colonialism touch Afghanistan?
- Modernization - how an Afghan king abolished the Burka.
- America did not even have an embassy in Afghanistan until 1948.
- Pres. Eisenhower visited Afghanistan in 1959.
- What happened after the monarchy was abolished in 1973?
S1E15: Comparing Vietnam Refugees to Afghanistan Refugees
HbN Guest: Dr. Amanda Demmer
Author of: After Saigon’s Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000
About Our Guest: Dr. Demmer an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech. Her research and teaching are focused on the boundaries between war and peace in American history.
In the news: America is leaving Afghanistan. So what happens to all the Afghans who helped American forces and efforts there?
In this episode (May 23, 2021):
- During WWII, the US was allied with Ho Chi Men.
- In Vietnam's Declaration of Independence, Ho Chi Men directly quotes the US Declaration of Independence.
- How the French left Vietnam.
- Dean Acheson: "Korea came along and saved us!"
- The US-Vietnam War was a total war for the Vietnamese.
- When the U.S. evacuated Vietnam in April 1975, about 130,000 Vietnamese evacuated along with US military personnel.
- Over time, more than one million Vietnamese refugees settled in America.
- Vietnamese refugees in US military bases.
- Comparing Kabul to Siagon.