Explaining Weak National Identification in Afghanistan
Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
June 2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Political Science
Advisor(s)
Margaret Hermann
Keywords
Afghanistan;Foreign Policy;Nation building;National identity;State building
Subject Categories
Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
The case of Afghanistan presents us with a paradox of state formation: the curious phenomenon where a population that has historically risen, time and again, in unified opposition to external threats - from the British Empire to the Soviet Union to the United States - remains more deeply wedded to its religious and ethnic affiliations than to a shared national narrative. This dissertation seeks to answer this puzzle: why do Afghans identify less with their national identity than their religious or ethnic identity? It argues that high government presence strengthens national identification and low government presence strengthens sub-national identification. It systematically tests this theory through an analysis of fine-grained survey data at the sub-national level for both direct and indirect measures of the independent variable. It finds that where the state recedes, traditional bonds reassert themselves. In places where government exists only as a rumor, where services are promises unfulfilled, people turn to the mosque, their ethnicity, and to the codes passed down through generations. This is not failure but absence: the absence of the everyday exercise of state power and of those small institutional interactions that slowly, imperceptibly, inculcate a sense of national identification. Afghans thus have stronger national identification in urban areas and in districts with high government presence, than in rural areas and in districts with low government presence. Given that most districts in Afghanistan are either rural or have low government presence, national identification is weak overall. These findings suggest that the mere existence of a territorial state does not automatically generate national identification. While many scholars have emphasized the role of shared historical narratives or imagined communities in fostering national identity, the evidence in this dissertation points to a more fundamental relationship between state presence and national identification. The findings suggest that the path to strong national identity runs not through nationalist ideology or historical mythology, but through the mundane yet crucial work of building state capacity. This insight thus challenges both modernization theory's assumptions about linear development and primordial theories of immutable national identities. Instead, it points to the critical role of institutions in shaping political identities. In conclusion, this dissertation offers implications for further research on national identity.
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Recommended Citation
Sharma, Prakhar, "Explaining Weak National Identification in Afghanistan" (2025). Dissertations - ALL. 2075.
https://surface.syr.edu/etd/2075
