Ghosts of Alexander Self-Outs

Christian Bleuer, the formerly anonymous author of the Ghosts of Alexander blog, has self-outed. Bleuer writes “I have come to the realization that there is nothing controversial or confrontational about this blog. I therefore have no need to continue with my pseudo-anonymity.” A PhD student in the research phase of his degree at The Australian National University’s Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (The Middle East and Central Asia), he states his blog is “about conflict related issues in Afghanistan: politics, culture, society, reconstruction, civil-military relations and insurgency.” Other qualifications:

I received my MA from Indiana University’s Central Eurasian Studies Department. My BA is also from IU with a major in political science and a minor from the Russian and East European Institute. I am a graduate of Athol Murray College of Notre Dame in Saskatchewan, Canada.

I focus on rural and peripheral social, political and military dynamics in Afghanistan and Southern Central Asia. Of particular interest to me are local solidarity groups, identity and loyalty, especially how these factors affect survival strategies during conflict and competition. At the moment I am finding anthropological writings to be quite useful. But I steal liberally from most of the social sciences.

I have studied Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajiki and Russian during my time at Indiana University and I highly recommend their intensive summer language program (which includes Pashto). I am currently studying Farsi.

I am also the creator/editor of The Afghanistan Analyst, an online research portal for Afghanistan.

 Excellent. We’re hoping Christian will consider joining us here at the CTLab blog, as well.