Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Marine Wife: “I Just Continually Prayed” During Afghanistan Withdrawal, Mark D. Weinstein

News Releases

As the Afghanistan evacuation dominated media headlines at the end of August, some held a very personal stake in the news. Especially when a bomb took the lives of 11 U.S. Marines, one Navy Corpsman and one Army soldier on August 26.

Diary Of An Afghan Woman Collection - September 2021

TSOS Interview Gallery

Four women share with us their daily lives in Afghanistan. Join them as they express their love for the country, the people, and each other; and as they share with you their deepest fears and most intimate moments.

They refuse to be silenced as they journey through this new, uncharted chapter in Afghanistan's history.

We at TSOS are honored to provide a platform for their voices to be heard. We will post entries as we receive them. For safety purposes, names have been changed and only avatars (designed with input from each woman) will be used.

ZOYA

Zoya is a …

The Evolution Of Hybrid Warfare: Implications For Strategy And The Military Profession, Ilmari Käihkö

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The concept of hybrid war has evolved from operational-level use of military means and methods in war toward strategic-level use of nonmilitary means in a gray zone below the threshold of war. This article considers this evolution and its implications for strategy and the military profession by contrasting past and current use of the hybrid war concept and raising critical questions for policy and military practitioners.

Yosuf, Yosuf, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Yosef and his family of four are from the Herat Province in Afghanistan. The eldest child used to sell potatoes with Ibrahim, the middle child, who was killed by a landmine planted by counter-revolutionaries. As a result, the eldest child, Ismail, developed severe nerve and mental issues, and the wife, who is now pregnant, frequently has seizures. They sold their home to treat Ismail, but doctors say nothing can be done. Ismail’s condition continues to worsen, but he refuses to leave to see a doctor because he is afraid of the police for an unknown reason. Yosef says he is …

Abandoned Allies: A Case Study Analysis Of The Special Immigrant Visa Program, Sarah Pedigo Kulzer

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Employing a qualitative case study approach, the current study aims to critically analyze the U.S.’s use of the Special Immigrant Visa program in Iraq and Afghanistan by examining the individuals it serves, the agencies through which services are rendered, and the state’s vested geopolitical interests in the program. Engaging in active participation, I observed and interacted with those who work within, assist, or utilize the services of Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ refugee resettlement program, including case workers, service providers, and resettlement clients themselves. Examined through the lens of neoliberal harm, the theoretical frameworks of realpolitik and Simmel’s (1950) concept of the …

Coin Doctrine Is Wrong, M. Chris Mason

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Counterinsurgency does not increase the legitimacy of, or support for, central governments engaged in internal conflicts. Recent research shows quantifiable degrees of government legitimacy, national identity, and population security are necessary precursors and accurate predictors of a government’s ability to outlast a civil uprising. Because the first two predictors—government legitimacy and national identity—can be measured and do not increase during a conflict, the probability of government failure in most cases can be accurately predicted when the conflict starts.

India's Role In The Reconstruction Of Afghanistan: Challenges And Prospects, Pradeep Reddy Tangirala

University Departments

No abstract provided.

Failure To Launch: Evaluating The Costs And Benefits Of America’S Strategy For Building Afghanistan’S Air Force, Alexander Smith

Senior Theses

The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for twenty years. For eighteen of these years, it has spent precious time, money, and resources to modernize the Afghan Air Force (AAF). In my thesis, I conduct a cost-benefit analysis of this strategy to determine whether the net benefits and the overall outcome of the program justify the level of U.S. investment. I compare U.S. efforts with the AAF to those with the Iraqi Air Force while exploring the idea of path dependency. My analysis reveals that U.S. efforts to modernize the AAF have been a failure. The United States …

Afghanistan’S First Female Deminers: An Analysis Of Perception Changes Among Deminers, Families, And Communities, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

For the first time in the thirty years of mine action in Afghanistan, as part of an initiative of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), in June 2018 a mixed-gender demining team was deployed by the Danish Demining Group (DRC-DDG) to clear landmines in Bamyan Province, in the central highlands of the country. A minefield was successfully cleared in six months. Following the success of the first project, in 2019 the same demining team was deployed once again to Bamyan to clear other hazards, including the last known minefield in the province. Bamyan has since been declared the first …

Limits And Possibilities Of The United States Military In Post-Conflict Reconstruction And Stabilization, Alcir Florentino Dos Santos Neto

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

This study probes the limits and possibilities of U.S. military efforts to facilitate the transition from warfighting to nation-building. Most comparative studies conceive the complexity of this transition along a spectrum from conflict to humanitarian assistance to post-conflict stabilization. While the last two stages have often been interpreted as a coordinated act of civil-military ‘nation-building’, the spectrum, in fact, represents an ideal type simplification. At one level, outcomes depend on the players involved, including sovereign nations, national militaries, international and regional institutions, U.N. peacekeepers, private security contractors, and non-governmental humanitarian providers, among others. On the other hand, because …

Ziba, Ziba, Sherianne Schow, Brandi Kilmer, Heather Oman

TSOS Interview Gallery

Ziba, a promising medical student, fled Afghanistan in 2018 due to instability and for her safety. Life was difficult upon arrival in the United States. In Afghanistan Ziba was involved in national and international poetry, math and science competitions. Ziba went from having everything to starting completely over in a new country. Her anxiety and depression became extremely difficult to deal with She reminded herself who she was, what her passions were and in January 2019 started medical school while working part time as a cashier. Her hope for future arriving refugees is to have a mental health network established …

Why The Taliban Have Been Successful In Afghanistan, Donovan Fox

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to attempt to solve why the Taliban have been successful in Afghanistan. In an attempt to solve why, I develop and test a theory on the Taliban's success against the U.S. in Afghanistan. My theory claims that the Taliban have been successful due to U.S. forces committing wrongdoings towards Afghan civilians. These wrongdoings, in turn, pushed civilian support away from the U.S. and its allies in this war. Afghan civilians would side with the Taliban, as they sought protection from the invading forces in their country. As a result of this gain in support, …

Afghan Decision-Making In A Development Context, Daniel Stent

Master's Theses

Numerous theories exist showing the relationship between stress and decision-making strategies. Conflict Theory, as expressed by Mann et al. (1997) explains that when facing a major decision, individuals will respond to the stress of that decision by using one of four decision-making strategies: vigilance, buckpassing, procrastination, and hypervigilance. In matching Conflict Theory with the cultural scales proposed by Hofstede (2001), the decision-making strategies of buckpassing and procrastination are preferred by individuals from collectivist cultures in contrast to people from individualistic cultures. The current study used Mann’s Melbourne Decision-Making Questionnaire in the context of Afghanistan. This research is pertinent given the …

Chasing Gold: Analyzing Opium Cultivation In Afghanistan And Its Alternatives, Jack Cameron

Senior Projects Spring 2021

This paper reviews the history of counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan from 1950 to the present. Each chapter will specifically examine a program or strategy used to suppress the cultivation of opium. It will then derive both the successes and failures of each moment in history. Using these lessons, the essay will lastly examine saffron as an alternative to opium. Though saffron has a high start-up cost and sizeable time investment, as the essay argues, these costs are actually worth it. Moreover, that these costs are most likely to be fulled in areas cultivating opium as poverty is at its lowest …

Parameters Winter 2020, Usawc Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Vital-Historical And Eternal Themes In Khaled Hosseini’S Novels, Dilnoza Ruzmatova Phd Student

Philology Matters

In the study of literature the themes of fiction are divided into vital-historical and eternal themes. Vital-historical themes refer to the conditions resulted in character upbringing in the socio-historical situation and they can’t exist outside of this certain time and place. The eternal themes indicate the repeated events in all the periods of all the nations. The combination of several themes in one work is expressed in literary studies with the concept of “thematic”. When faced with such a situation, one or two major themes may be separated, and the rest should be explored as secondary. The objective of this …

Nato's Security Sector Reform In Afghanistan, Sakhi Naimpoor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study aims to understand the security policy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and investigate whether NATO’s Security Sector Reform (SSR) approach in Afghanistan was a mixed record of success and failure between 2003 and 2014. In terms of NATO’s SSR approach in Afghanistan, what worked, what did not work, and why did certain aspects of SSR fail? The analysis sheds light on the policy-relevant, logistic and doctrinal intricacies associated with NATO’s now almost twenty-year record of involvement in Afghanistan, as well as liberal institutionalism’s policy relevance. This research benefits the security policy community by asking whether NATO's …

Limits And Possibilities Of The United States Military In Post-Conflict Reconstruction And Stabilization, Alcir Florentino Dos Santos Neto

Masters Theses

This study probes the limits and possibilities of US military efforts to facilitate the transition from warfighting to nation-building. Most comparative studies conceive the complexity of this transition along a spectrum from conflict to humanitarian assistance to post-conflict stabilization. While the last two stages have often been interpreted as a coordinated act of civil-military ‘nation-building’; the spectrum, in fact, represents an ideal type simplification. At one level, outcomes depend on the players involved, including: sovereign nations, national militaries, international and regional institutions, UN peacekeepers, private security contractors, and non-governmental humanitarian providers, among others. On the other hand, because the number, …

Barack Obama: From An End To Terror To Drone Wars And Isis, Gabriel Rubin

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Barack Obama attempted to recalibrate presidential rhetoric on the terror threat. He made far fewer speeches about terrorism than George W. Bush did. Yet, despite some efforts to the contrary, he continued many of Bush’s policies—and in the case of targeted assassinations using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), went further than Bush. The analysis of Obama’s rhetoric on terrorism shows a president who both wants to distance himself from his predecessor and one who wants to be seen as tough on terrorism. In the final analysis, Obama’s rhetoric and policies hewed rather closely to George W. Bush’s. This chapter raises questions …

Whose War Is It Anyway? How Afghanistan Became A Battlefield Over Global Hegemony During The Cold War, Kathryn Shapiro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional scholarship depicts the Cold War, which began immediately after World War Two and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as a battle of freedom and democracy over communism and authoritarian control. Cold War propaganda cartoons often show an Uncle Sam figure facing off against the Soviet Union, or a Soviet Bear reaching out to grab and control Western Europe. While this may have been popular Cold War discourse, a close look at internal documents from the United States Government at the time reveals that the United States was more interested in protecting resources and their …

The Journal Of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 23.3 (2020), Cisr Journal

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Southeast Asia | Risk Management | Cluster Munitions Remnants Survey | IMAS Training in Vietnam | Mine Risk Education | Victim Assistance | Underwater Clearance | Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality in HMA | HMA in the Gray Zone | IED Clearance Capacity in Afghanistan

The Development Of A Humanitarian Ied Clearance Capacity In Afghanistan, Alexander Tan

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been widely used in Afghanistan since the mid-2000s, presenting a significant and life-threatening hazard to the civilian population. As areas become free from conflict and permissible for humanitarian clearance, an effective response is required to protect civilians. With the support of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Federal Foreign Office, and in coordination with the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC; the Afghan national mine action authority) and other stakeholders, The HALO Trust (HALO) has developed and implemented a successful proof of concept for manual clearance of victim operated IEDs (VOIEDs). While …

Strategy Of Japan In Afghanistan: Priority Interests And Key Results, A. Umarov

International Relations: Politics, Economics, Law

The article analyzes the Japan’s strategy of involvement in the conflict stabilization in Afghanistan. The priority interests of Tokyo in this country, the main directions of Japanese assistance to the development of Afghanistan, as well as the results of the implementation of numerous projects, are studied. At the same time, a number of promising areas for Uzbek-Japanese cooperation on a peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan have been noted.

On The International Conference “Uzbekistan In The Context Of Regional Security And Global Change”, Sh. M. Abdullaev

International Relations: Politics, Economics, Law

The review is dedicated to the results of the international conference on the theme “Uzbekistan in the context of regional security and global changes”, which was held on November 7-8, 2019 in Tashkent. The organizers were the University of World Economy and Diplomacy under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan together with the international scientific project COMPASS (Great Britain). During the two-day discussions, international experts discussed a wide range of issues, including large-scale reforms in Uzbekistan, integration processes in Central Asia, issues of security and sustainable development. They noted that today A new political atmosphere is …

Taliban Fragmentation: Fact, Fiction, And Future, A. S. Rakhimov, A. B. Mirzaliev

International Relations: Politics, Economics, Law

The digest is devoted to the analysis published by the Institute of Peace (US) under the title “Taliban Fragmentation: Fact, Fiction, and Future”. The report examines the phenomenon of insurgent fragmentation within Afghanistan’s Taliban and implications for the Afghan peace process. Understanding the Taliban’s fragmentation phenomenon would help all interested parties involved in the peace process to properly build the negotiation process with this movement and achieve real results in ending the conflict in Afghanistan.

2020 Children's Story Cards, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Arif: "I like being in school again."

Norina: "We laugh a lot but I also worry."

Nooda: "I came on a boat. It was a big boat!"

Madina: "I just want to live in a safe place..."

Shurangez: "Sometimes we didn't feel safe at school."

Alex: "I'm from Nigeria. Coming to Italy was very difficult-very, very difficult, a real struggle."

Danial: "I want to be a useful person and follow my dreams."

Firoz: "I am 13 years old and I am worried about my family."

Ali: "Ali lived in Afghanistan. One day while walking to school a bomb exploded near …

The Soviet And American Wars In Afghanistan: Applying Clausewitzian Concepts To Modern Military Failure, Artur Kalandarov

Honors Projects

This paper evaluates the validity of three concepts from Carl von Clausewitz’s On War as they relate to contemporary military conflict. Utilizing the Soviet and American Wars in Afghanistan as case studies, the paper also offers a model for comparative conflict analysis by expanding upon Clausewitz’s culminating point concept. It argues that – despite limitations to Clausewitz’s theory of war – his concepts of culminating points in military operations, mass and concentration, and changing war aims provide useful insights into counterinsurgency military failures. Chapter One identifies the Soviet and American culminating points. Concluding that the concept of a culminating point …

The Role Of Symbols In “The Kite Runner” By Khaled Hosseini, Gulhayо Achilova Researcher

Philology Matters

The main focus of this research work is to analyze the symbols and their role in interpreting the novel “The Kite Runner” by Afghan-born American writer Khaled Hosseini who has widely used artistic signs in his novel. With the help of symbols the essence of the work has been conveyed to the reader through the sensitivity of artistic principles. The symbols in the novel were analyzed being divided into categories as characters, places, things and complex symbols. The introduction of the symbols in the novel, as the secret information of the author to the reader, is a masterpiece of the …

Winning Public Hearts And Minds: Security And Development Aid In The 21st Century, Mohammad Ashraf

Dissertations

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, foreign aid has focused on winning public hearts and minds in the aid recipient states as a hedge against insecurity and means to achieve progress in the “war on terror.” Western donors, especially the United States, argue foreign aid is an effective tool to expand government capacity and control over territory, win public hearts and minds, and ultimately mitigate the need and significant military costs of deployment to counter insecurity, extremism, and terrorism in weak, fragile and failing states.

This dissertation uses case studies to explore the …

Analysis Of Nation-Building During Insurgency In U.S. Defense Policy Strategy, Joseph Valles

MSU Graduate Theses

U.S. defense policy has often relied on a strategy of nation-building to reform the local government and address the root causes of the instability in a given nation or region. This strategy has, in recent years, been criticized for being ineffective and a wasteful drain on American resources. This paper will determine if such criticism is valid by analyzing the performance of four security environments where such a strategy was used: Vietnam, El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The paper will determine if such a strategy was effective in these conflicts by analyzing the progress of reforms and, when possible, the …