In and out of memory: exploring the tension between remembering and forgetting when recalling 9/11, a traumatic event. My research is an unravelling of a traumatic memory to describe, understand and answer questions about the 'trauma body.' In my research, I put forward the idea that traumatic memories are detached memories with an emotional resonance that fixes them historically in a specific place and time, unwieldy anchors for a body that is neither here (present), nor there (in the past). I analyse this paradox from philosophical and psychoanalytical perspectives. Through a layered arts practice of text, sonic art work, and moving and still imagery I examine the tension where trauma meets memory, whether in an attempt to forget, or an effort to remember. Memory in this context is perceived as crucial towards understanding oneself socially, culturally and personally, whilst trauma is understood as an experience borne by the act of ‘leaving,’ wherein the mind’s coping mechanism overwhelmed by shocking external events fractures or splits. I began this process by revisiting a journal written on the day of and days following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. A journal that had remained closed and unread until starting my research in 2012. My aim was to deconstruct my memory of this traumatic event, lay it to rest and explore the latent witnessing that defies assimilation into a narrative. I employ autoethnography as a methodology to facilitate a greater understanding of trauma and its wider cultural implications, overlaying my personal memories upon a well-established collective memory of 9/11. Autoethnography, in this instance, is a reformulation of ethnography or anthropology, an in-depth examination of context incorporating cross-disciplinary approaches. With an emphasis on self-reflection and subjective participation, as both the artist and the owner of certain memories, my intention was to engage a larger epistemological discussion of the meeting place of trauma and memory.

Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, many turned to the field of psychology for greater understanding of the impact of such events and guidance in supporting our citizens. This study sought to gain greater understanding of the differential impact of the September 11th attack on individuals by investigating the influence of age, psychological hardiness, and repression versus sensitization as forms of coping behavior on psychological health. Both an initial cross-sectional sample (172 young adults & 231older adults) and a short-term longitudinal follow-up (39 young adults & 58 older adults) were included in the study. Older age, psychological hardiness and the use of a repressing coping style were found to each individually relate to greater resilience/less dysfunction at both time one and two. For young adults, high hardy repressors faired best, followed by high hardy sensitizers. Low hardy young adults demonstrated similar levels of dysfunction regardless of coping style (repressions/sensitization). For older adults, coping style impacted both high and low hardy individuals equally, with high hardy repressors demonstrating greater functioning. This study attempted to gain greater insight into explanations for these and previous findings of greater resilience among older adults. In explaining the greater resilience of older adults, it seems that coping style is highly important, while hardiness and the impact of history-graded events does not explain the resilience of older adults.

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Since the Post-9/11 GI Bill an increasing number of veterans and military students are seeking to complete degrees online and through enrollment at campuses across the nation (Brown 2011). The increased number of military students in postsecondary education settings presents challenges and opportunities for both the veteran student and institution of higher education. Military students also referred to as veteran students are choosing to pursue postsecondary education for occupational and employment opportunities, personal growth and enrichment, and to use their Post-9/11 GI education benefits. It is expected that military personnel with past military service in Afghanistan and Iraq will become a growing student population enrolled in U.S postsecondary education. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the experiences and expectations of an African American male veteran student at an institution of higher education. This qualitative research study included an in-depth interview with an African American male veteran student. Through interviewing the participant, I listened to the experiences and expectations from an African American male veteran student from Iraq War who attended a state assisted predominantly Caucasian university. The collection and analysis of his stories gave me an understanding of his diverse needs, experiences, and expectations.

This study is about the Bush-administration after the events of 9/11. Despite the fact that Israel-Palestine had no connection to 9/11 or Al-qaida, the Bush-administration changed their foreign policy regarding the Israel-Palestine issue. This thesis studies the motives behind the administration's change using a theoretical based motive analysis. The analysis intends to provide motive-based explanations with the help of international relations (IR) theory. To reduce the scope of the analysis, the thesis investigates if the security, identity and solidarity motives from the IR-theories realism and constructivism could be a possible cause for the change in policy. This study uses the Bush-administration’s own statements which were found at the White House archives, among others, to explore the motives correspondence. The analysis concludes that the motives: security,identity and solidarity, have been motives for the administration’s change in the Israel-Palestine issue and the motives have shown correspondence with reality. Both theories then show relevance for being able to study this issue and define motives from. This study also acknowledges the value of combining realism and constructivism to analyze this case.

This research is concerned with Pakistan¿s participation in the US-led `war on terror¿ in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The study seeks to explain how Pakistan¿s state practice in the aftermath of 9/11 was normalised and made possible. In explaining the state practice, the study draws on a constructivist conceptual framework; which is further enhanced by incorporating key theoretical insights from critical realism. In the first instance, the study proposes that Pakistan¿s participation in the `war on terror¿, seen as a set of actions and practices, was an outcome of a specific domestic political discourse. This discourse enabled and legitimised the state¿s alliance with the US and its abandonment of the Taliban regime. Secondly, the study is concerned with explaining why the particular discourse emerged in the shape and form that it did. In this context, the argument is that a depth `critical realist¿ ontological inquiry can reveal underlying and enduring global and domestic social structural contexts, and traces of agential influence as connected to the discourse. Consequently, this study conceptualises Pakistan¿s actions in the context of the `war on terror¿ as emerging from a multi-causal complex in which discourse, structure and agency are complicit. The study represents a departure from realist readings that emphasise a mono-causal relationship between the US and Pakistan. Instead, this research uses a synthesis of critical realism and constructivism to add a fresh perspective in terms of how we may conceptualise Pakistan¿s political practice in this instance.

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Hur kan det komma sig att stater som är väl medvetna om att det finns en potentiell risk för att bli utsatta för ett angrepp, och som utifrån den kunskapen har fattat ett rationellt beslut i att bygga upp ett förvarningssystem, ändå råkar ut för "blixtar från en klar himmel", i form av överraskningsangrepp? Uppsatsen avser undersöka hur misslyckade förvarningar kan förklaras utifrån ett beslutstödsperspektiv med strukturella och analytiska underrättelsefaktorer i fokus. Undersökningen tar sin utgångspunkt i att stater handlar rationellt utifrån en realistisk kontext för att därefter undersöka strukturella och analytiska problemfaktorer som omger underrättelseverksamheten. Detta görs genom att utgå ifrån den så kallade underrättelsecykeln vilken förstärks upp som förklaringsmodell genom att den tillförs organisationsteoretiska och kunskapsteoretiska verktyg. Studien pekar på de strukturella och analytiska problemen som omgärdar underrättelsetjänsten är av sådan avgörande karaktär att de mycket väl kan förklara varför stater misslyckas med att förutse överraskningar. / How come that states that act according to the realistic theory and take rational decisions, including institutional preparedness to minimize the risk of surprise by their enemies, still, to great extent, fails to detect surprise attacks? The aim of this study is to seek an understanding how structural and analytic factors in the intelligence services can explain intelligence failure. This is done by dissecting those structural and analytic features with the help of organization theory and the inductive science theory combined with the so called intelligence cycle. The conclusion of this study indicates that the intelligence services, do have a lot of compromising factors that can explain, why states, to great extent fails to detect surprise attacks.

No / Pakistan's Directorate of Inter-Service Intelligence [ISI] plays an ambiguous role in the War on Terrorism. An important ally for Western intelligence with whom it has very close links, the ISI also has a long history of involvement in supporting and promoting terrorism in the name of Pakistan's geostrategic interests. This article explores the nature of the ISI and its aims and objectives in the post-9/11 era. It argues that the focus of the ISI's actions are to shore up Pakistan's ruling elite and to destabilize Pakistan's enemies by the promotion of Sunni Islamism at home and of pan-Islamist jihad abroad. The ISI's strategy, however, deeply conflicts with that of the West, a point underlined by the resurgence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban almost six years after the War on Terrorism began. With grave new trends evident in Pakistan, reliance on the ISI is failing and a Western rethink of its intelligence strategy toward Pakistan is now imperative.