The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies

The following books were recently published by Harvard Academy Scholars.

How Solidarity Works for Welfare: Subnationalism and Social Development in India

By Prerna Singh 

How Solidarity Works for Welfare, by Prerna SinghWhy are some places in the world characterized by better social service provision and welfare outcomes than others? In a world in which millions of people, particularly in developing countries, continue to lead lives plagued by illiteracy and ill-health, understanding the conditions that promote social welfare is of critical importance to political scientists and policy makers alike. Drawing on a multi-method study, from the late nineteenth century to the present, of the stark variations in educational and health outcomes within a large, federal, multiethnic developing country—India—this book develops an argument for the power of collective identity as an impetus for state prioritization of social welfare. Such an argument not only marks an important break from the dominant negative perceptions of identity politics but also presents a novel theoretical framework to understand welfare provision. (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Weatherhead Center Academy Scholar Prerna Singh is the Mahatma Gandhi Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Brown University.

Humanitarian Invasion: Global Development in Cold War Afghanistan

By Timothy Nunan

Humanitarian Invasion, by Timothy NunanHumanitarian Invasion is the first book of its kind: a ground-level inside account of what development and humanitarianism meant for Afghanistan, a country touched by international aid like no other. Relying on Soviet, Western, and NGO archives, interviews with Soviet advisers and NGO workers, and Afghan sources, Timothy Nunan forges a vivid account of the impact of development on a country on the front lines of the Cold War. Nunan argues that Afghanistan functioned as a laboratory for the future of the third world nation-state. If, in the 1960s, Soviets, Americans, and Germans sought to make a territorial national economy for Afghanistan, later, under military occupation, Soviet nation builders, French and Swedish humanitarians, and Pakistani-supported guerrillas fought a transnational civil war over Afghan statehood. Covering the entire period from the Cold War to Taliban rule, Humanitarian Invasion signals the beginning of a new stage in the writing of international history. (Cambridge University Press, 2016)

Weatherhead Center Academy Scholar Timothy Nunan received his DPhil at the University of Oxford.