Blog
The blog echoes the remit of the RSAA, covering current affairs, culture, travel, exploration and recent history from the Levant to East Asia.
Opinions expressed in posts are those of the contributor, not of the RSAA.
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Great Game manuscript gifted to RSAA: George Hayward
Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones MBE, RSAA Archivist, writes on the gift by Kathleen Hopkirk, widow of the author Peter Hopkirk, to the RSAA of a 19th century notebook written by George Hayward, one of the early players of the Great Game. He fell among thieves was a favourite Victorian poem by Sir Henry Newbolt, recited in drawing…
Pakistan: What lies ahead?
Dr Amit Ranjan is a Research Fellow at the Indian Council for World Affairs in New Delhi. Here, he submits a point of view on the tensions inherent in contemporary Pakistan, and what they might mean for the future. One of the most challenging questions that haunt Pakistanis and others too is: Where is the…
Landmarks, memory, and a changing Dushanbe
Anna Kellar studied Political Science as an undergraduate at Yale, where she co-founded the Yale Afghanistan Forum, and is currently finishing a Msc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics. She has conducted research on development aid in Tajikistan, studied foreign policy in Italy and worked for an anti-corruption NGO in Slovakia. She is…
Invention of a Pre-Ottoman Tradition: Diriliş
Nagihan Haliloglu is an assistant professor at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Here, she writes on Diriliş – the Game of Thrones equivalent which is currently enthralling Turkish TV audiences – and meditates on what reflections it casts on contemporary Turkey. In November 2014 the streets of Istanbul were suddenly awash with posters of bearded…
In Pursuit of the Jewels of Persia
RSAA members Max Lovell-Hoare and Sophie Ibbotson both recently were privileged to be part of a first in the history of travel – they were guides on the first private train to be permitted to cross from Iran to Europe. Here, Max Lovell-Hoare reflects on an unexpected gem he discovered in Iran during the journey….
Balochistan through the Afghan back door
Karlos Zurutuza is a freelance reporter who contributes to a number of media channels including Al-Jazeera. Here, he writes on the complexities of covering one of the most off-the-radar conflicts worldwide: Balochistan. It had been four years since I last met Mr Purdely. The chain of uprisings in northern Africa and the Middle East that…
The Future for Saudi Arabia – an Ambassador’s view
Sir Harold Walker KCMG is a former UK Ambassador to Bahrain, the UAE and Iraq. He has long-standing experience of the Arab world, and also serves on the Council for Arab-British Understanding. He is an Honorary Vice-President of the RSAA. The death of Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud at the age of about 91…
RSAA Lecture – Flora of the Silk Road
Every now and then there is an RSAA lecture that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. In the case of Flora of the Silk Road, turning up at St Peter’s Church Hall on a particularly damp and windy night, Chris Gardner’s illustrated talk was an unexpected gem. A professional botanist with at least…
Sufism and the State: Saints’ Shrines in Central Asia
Fitzroy Morrissey is an Oriental Studies Graduate of Oxford University. He has travelled extensively in the Islamic world, and is the author of A Sufi for a week. He is currently studying Persian as a graduate student. Here, he discusses the relationship between Sufism in Central Asia and the post-Soviet states. For over half a…
Assassinations, cyber attacks and sanctions: North Korea in the limelight
Dr Jim Hoare was chargé d’affaires at the British Embassy in Pyongyang from 2001 to 2002. He is also an academic and historian specialising in Chinese and Korean history, and is a member of the editorial board of Asian Affairs. Here, he gives a point of view on the recent confrontation between North Korea and…
Robert Twigger: 50 Years after Idries Shah’s The Sufis
Robert Twigger is an acclaimed travel writer who has written on Japan and the Nile. Here, as a guest blogger for the Asian Affairs Weblog, he hails the 50th anniversary of the publication of Idries Shah’s The Sufis: It is 50 years since the publication of Idries’ Shah’s ground-breaking The Sufis, with its introduction by…
Afghan Marble Trade – interview
Matthew Leeming is an RSAA member who works in Afghanistan with Milio International to develop Afghan marble mines and the country’s capacity to process and export the stone. He is also co-author of the Odyssey Companion and Guide to Afghanistan. Here, he answers questions from the Asian Affairs Weblog: What is the state of trade…
Afghan Boundary Commission 1885 – quest for photographs
During the work of the Anglo-Russian commission, which, with the agreement of the Amir, settled Afghanistan’s north-western border with the Russian Empire in 1885-6, a series of photographs were taken. Paul Bucherer, the Director of the Afghanistan Institute in Switzerland, has compiled a catalogue of these photographs, with copies displayed on the Institute’s Phototheca Afghanica…
The Peshawar School Attack
Dr Robin Edward Poulton, an RSAA member who has lived amongst Afghan villagers, offers a heartfelt response to the recent Taliban attack on the Peshawar Army Public School in Pakistan: Taliban butchers are Pashtun cowards by Robin Edward Poulton[i] If you sit of an evening beside a fire in the Pashtun heartlands, you will hear…