Nabi Sahak, "Anglo-Afghan Power and Politics, 1893–1947: The Durand Line Unmasked" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)

In

this episode of New Books Network, I speak with Nabi Sahak about his

book, Anglo-Afghan Power and Politics, 1893–1947: The Durand Line Unmasked (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).

Anglo-Afghan

Power and Politics revisits one of the most contested borders in the

modern world. The roughly 2,640-kilometre line drawn in 1893 by Mortimer

Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman

Khan, which today divides Pashtun communities between Afghanistan and

Pakistan. Sahak's central argument is that the historical purpose of the

Durand Line has never been settled: was it a temporary

sphere-of-influence arrangement, a frontier meant to manage dissent, or a

genuine international border? The book contends that answering this