50 years of observation allows me a transgenerational perspective of Afghanistan. Through my eyes as an expatriate American, I tracked changes in lifestyle, culture and world view. Four distinct periods of modern Afghan life and society altered how Afghans lived and thought.  My interactions with Afghans during these times represent different stages in my cross-cultural understanding of things Afghan.

The first section of my journey begins with personal vignettes during the last year of the Kingdom of Afghanistan (Pax Afghanicus (1938 - 72)), while I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghazni (1971-73). At this stage, I was a neophyte to Afghanistan, Islam and the power dynamics of the Afghan Shatter Zone.

The second section reflects insights into how Afghan refugees’ lives, and attitudes changed during the Soviet invasion. My narrative and vignettes cover my four and a half years in Peshawar, Pakistan (1987-1991), working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) with Afghan refugees in the NWFP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa [KP]), the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and cross-border projects inside Afghanistan. It describes the outside powers, pressures, movements and motivations imposed by the West, Iran, Pakistan, India and Arabia. I became more aware of Afghan diversity and regional rivalries and the changing political and religious beliefs of Afghans.

My third section describes post-Taliban Afghanistan (2002) as an international monitor attached to the Independent Committee for the Convening of the Emergency Loya Jirga.  I traveled in Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces and worked with young highly motivated election teams, who had been infants when the Soviets invaded. Most of them had never left the country or been refugees.

My 4^th and last section covers my experiences as a cultural analyst for the U.S. Army’s Special Operations command.  This period was the most difficult for me, because the US military was almost totally dependent on contractors for language services and obsessed with force protection.