Thomas J. Barfield

Thomas J. Barfield is professor of anthropology at Boston University. His new book, Shadow Empires, explores how distinctly different types of empires arose and sustained themselves as the dominant polities of Eurasia and North Africa for 2,500 years before disappearing in the 20th century. He is a renowned historian of Central Eurasia and the author of The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan, The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757, Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture, and Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (revised and expanded second edition 2022, Princeton University Press).

September 30, 2026

Geopolitics/News

Sri Lanka Court Orders Return of $916,537 Stolen in Cyberattack on Taiwanese Bank

A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of US$916,537 held at the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and its return to Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank, the bank from which

Editor's Choice/Technology

The Man at the Far End of Trump’s AI Table

Claude is becoming increasingly capable and commercially valuable, while Anthropic is fighting Washington over autonomous weapons and surveillance. The company wants America to lead AI, but not at any price.

September 30, 2026

White House AI Accord Sets Four-Layer Safety Framework for Frontier Technology

Artificial Intelligence

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and other technology leaders have signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence, committing participating companies to a four-layer

$8 Trillion G7 Defence Surge Brings AI Investment and Debt Pressures Together

Editor's Choice/News

The next decade could see an estimated $8 trillion surge in additional defence spending by the Group of Seven, according to former US Navy

Why the U.S. Is Hostile to Autocratic Regimes

May 25, 2024

History/United States

Considering whether modern states are empires tells us almost nothing useful about either modern states or empires. A better question is what policies and structures pioneered by empires are still employed by

Why the EU Could Last 1,000 Years

May 25, 2024

History

Empires historically possessed a unique ability to organize diversity and successfully rule over people quite different from one another. The national states that succeeded them in Europe were organized on the basis

Where Did Vladimir Putin’s Dream Of a ‘Russian World’ Come From?

April 12, 2024

Diplomacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by asserting the existence of a singular “Russian world” that needs protection and reunification. He set aside the secular socialist ideological rationales