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).

October 20, 2026

Columns/Geopolitics

The French Protests Are Being Misunderstood

The French protests that are spreading over Europe are not receiving proper attention. The explanation that students all over France, with the disturbances spreading into Italy and Belgium, are burning down historic

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s illicit cigarette trade costs government Rs 29.5bn in lost tax revenue

Sri Lanka lost an estimated Rs 29.5 billion in potential tax revenue in 2025 because of illicit factory-made cigarette consumption, according to an economic assessment by Oxford Economics, which estimates that illegal products accounted for 20% of the market despite

October 20, 2026

Sri Lanka: Rising Prices and People’s Patience

Sri Lanka

A familiar storm gathers Sri Lanka’s inflation reached 8% in September 2026, above the Central Bank’s 3–7% target band for a third straight month,

Women’s Role in Peacekeeping Stalls Worldwide

Editor's Choice/Geopolitics

More than 25 years after the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, women’s representation in multilateral peace operations

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