The Brown University Library has received the books and papers of the late Michael V. Bhatia ’99, an Afghanistan expert and coauthor of Afghanistan, Arms and Conflict: Armed Groups, Disarmament and Security in a Post-War Society, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in May 2008 while serving as a civilian member of a U.S. Army Human Terrain Team.
The Library is honored to house Bhatia’s collection of scholarly books, along with his papers, conference proceedings, and other writings, which were generously donated by his family. Included in Bhatia’s library were posters from the first election in Afghanistan; these have been preserved and are located in the University Archives in the John Hay Library.
Bhatia was widely recognized as a passionate and highly accomplished scholar who was working on his doctoral dissertation at Oxford University at the time of his death. The Human Terrain System embedded social scientists and anthropologists like Bhatia with combat troops in order to help the troops better understand the cultural dynamics in which they were operating. Bhatia used his considerable expertise on humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, and the culture of Afghanistan to mediate disputes and negotiate solutions with local tribal elders.

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