American University of Afghanistan: An Island of Liberal Arts Education in a War Zone

Abstract

This research aims to explain the benefits and challenges of promoting an American-style liberal arts education at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) from 2005 to 2021 during the Western-backed Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It draws on the author’s earlier research on Afghanistan’s higher education and professional experience of working as a foreign academic at AUAF to contextualise the exceptional characteristics of AUAF as an island of liberal arts education and to analyse its educational, institutional, financial and political challenges until the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021. It argues that AUAF’s specific educational mission and institutional management, growing insecurity and over-reliance on external funding prevented AUAF from becoming a sustainable institution. These challenges were further exacerbated after the return of the Taliban and forced AUAF to close its Kabul-based campuses and relocate to the Education City in Qatar to offer a mixed of in-person and remote education.