Robert Crews
I write and teach about global history and politics, focusing on Afghanistan, Russia, Central Asia, South Asia, and Islam.
In 2024-2025, my courses include Russia's Muslim Frontiers, The Irish and the World, The Global Drug Wars, and Global History: The Modern Age (History 1C).
I am the author of Afghan Modern: The History of a Global Nation (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2015) and For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press, 2006) - in Russian translation as За пророка и царя: ислам и империя в России и Центральной Азии (Москва: Новое литературное обозрение, 2020) and co-editor of Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands (Harvard University Press, 2012) and The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (Harvard University Press, 2008).
My work has also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Paradigm.
I have served as Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford.
A 2009 Carnegie Scholar, I received the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching for First Years of Teaching, 2006-2007, the El Centro Chicano Faculty Appreciation Award in 2011, and the Stanford College Prep Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award, Summer 2012. My research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Program, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Kennan Institute, the Carnegie Corporation, the International Research and Exchanges Board, the Academy of Korean Studies, and others.
Professional Service
Editor-in-Chief of the journal Afghanistan (published by The American Institute of Afghanistan Studies/Edinburgh University Press), 2020--Present
Advisory Board Member, The Center of Excellence for Social Justice (CESJ) at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 2023—Present
American Historical Association John F. Richards Prize in South Asian History Selection Committee, 2024
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fellowship Project, 2023-2024
Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship Selection Committee, 2018-2020
Recent Publications
“Afghanistan’s Ambiguous Anniversary,” Edinburgh University Press Blog, August 15, 2024.
"The Deportation Delusion," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, July 29, 2024.
"Palestine and Russia: The Global Politics of Muslim Solidarity," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, December 8, 2023.
"Eight Lessons from the 9/11 Wars," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, September 11, 2023.
“Ask the Experts: Should the United States Normalize Relations With the Taliban?” Foreign Affairs, August 21, 2023.
"The Hydra of 'Hybrid War'," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, June 29, 2023.
"Is Russia the Last Empire?," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, March 22, 2023.
"Shattering the Russian Colossus," The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, March 18, 2023.
“'Sellers of the Homeland’: Narratives of Treason and Fidelity in Afghanistan,” in Enemies Within: The Global Politics of Fifth Columns, eds. Harris Mylonas and Scott Radnitz (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 153-172.
“Gender, Religious Authority, and Media in Afghanistan,” The Written and the Spoken in Central Asia/Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit in Zentralasien – Festschrift für Ingeborg Baldauf, ed. Redkollegia (Potsdam: edition-tethys, 2021), 359-379.
“New Publics and the Challenge of Peace in Afghanistan,” in In Search of Peace for Afghanistan: Historical Letters of President Najibullah and Dr. M. Hassan Kakar: A Collection of Essays, ed. Jawan Shir Rasikh (Kabul: Kakar History Foundation Press, 2021), 175-188.
“Mourning Imam Husayn in Karbala and Kabul: The Political Meanings of ʿAshura in Afghanistan,” Afghanistan 3, no. 2 (2020): 202-236.
Recent PhD Advisees
Dr. Anubha Anushree, “The Moral Republic: Corruption in Colonial and Postcolonial India, c. 1830-1974” (2022)
Dr. Mélisande Genat, “State Law and Tribal Justice in Iraq, 1914-2022” (2023)
Dr. Mejgan Massoumi, “The Sounds of Kabul: Radio and the Politics of Popular Culture in Afghanistan, 1960-79" (2021)
Dr. Sabauon Nasseri, “The Red Flower of Life: A History of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, 1964-2020” (2023)
Books
Articles/Chapters
Contact
Office Hours
“Is Russia the Last Empire?” The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, March 22, 2023.
“Shattering the Russian Colossus,” The New Paradigm, Institute for New Global Politics, March 18, 2023.
“The United States’ Unvarnished Cruelty in Afghanistan,” with Bhav Jain, Simar S. Bajaj, and Mariam Noorulhuda, Undark Magazine, August 25, 2022.
"Muslims are fighting on both sides in Ukraine," The Washington Post, March 10, 2022.
“Who Are the Taliban?” Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, February 2022.
“Global Health Responsibilities in a Taliban-led Afghanistan,” Nature Medicine, November 8, 2021, with Bhav Jain, Simar S. Bajaj, and Mariam Noorulhuda.
“The Challenge of Taliban Ideology for International Politics: Religious Competition, Counterterrorism, and the Search for Legitimacy” Международная аналитика [Journal of International Analytics] 12, no. 4 (2021): 50–67.
“The Ephemeral Emirate? Dilemmas of a Taliban State,” Berkley Forum, Georgetown University, Islam, Politics, and the Future of Afghanistan, November 3, 2021.
“What the US exit from Kabul tells us about the value of Afghan lives,” with Nasema Zeerak, Open Democracy, August 31, 2021.
“The Taliban wants to rule Afghanistan again. But the country has changed,” with Wazhmah Osman, The Washington Post, July 20, 2021.
“Mourning Imam Husayn in Karbala and Kabul: The Political Meanings of ʿAshura in Afghanistan,” Afghanistan 3, no. 2 (2020): 202-236.
“The Necessity of an Afghan Resettlement Program,” The New York Times (“Room for Debate: Is America Responsible for Afghan Refugees?”), April 6, 2016.
“America’s Afghan Refugee Crisis,” Foreign Policy, February 4, 2016.