Michael Bhatia

Brown University

Michael Bhatia was a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute in 2006-07 while completing his doctorate in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. His areas of interest included Afghanistan, war, small arms, disarmament, and international development. His doctoral dissertation, entitled The Mujahideen: A Study of Combatant Motives in Afghanistan, 1978-2005, is based on 350 interviews with combatants throughout Afghanistan, as well as archival and media research. He conducted research in Afghanistan for the Overseas Development Institute, the Small Arms Survey, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, the UK Department for International Development (via the International Policy Institute, King’s College, London), and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Bhatia is the author of War and Intervention: Issues for Contemporary Peace Operations (Kumarian Press, 2003).

Bhatia’s videos are used in this Choices Program curriculum unit:
Responding to Terrorism: Challenges for Democracy

We mourn the death of Michael Bhatia in Afghanistan on May 7, 2008.
He was our colleague and friend.