Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Dell, Robert F. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 13, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: manpower planning, optimization, infinite horizon, variable time model, officer management, enlisted management. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-64). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Pardee Rand Graduate School, Santa Monica, California, 2008. / Title taken from PDF title screen (viewed June 3, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Afghan women suddenly gained high visibility all over the world. Since then, representations of Afghan women in the Western media and notably in the U.S. news media provide a critical concern to scholars. Much of the relevant literature on this topic speaks to the fact that the dominant portrayal of Afghan women in the Western media has shown them as passive victims of war and violence, to be liberated only by the Western military intervention. However, the question remains as to how the popular fictional narratives, as another vivid source of information, represent Afghan women to the Western readers. To address this question, A Thousand Splendid Suns, as a popular novel authored by Khalid Hosseini, an Afghan novelist, was selected. Bormannian fantasy theme analysis of this novel conveys the passivity of women in the context of Afghanistan. The findings reveal that the portrayals of Afghan women in the novel correspond with the images of Afghan women in the Western media. Moreover, an examination of a sample of book reviews of the novel unveils the important contribution of Khalid Hosseini to the Orientalist discourse.

This study investigated certain aspects of the cross-cultural adaptation process of Afghan returnees who have repatriated from Iran to Afghanistan. The study’s particular focus is the issue of cross-cultural adaptation in the current context of Afghanistan; that is, what challenges face Afghans returning from Iran to their country of origin following years of exile in Iran. Afghan immigration to Iran has a long history. Using Young Yun Kim’s cross-cultural adaptation theory as the leading theoretical framework, the researcher investigated the cultural adaptation of those who have lived in Iran for more than 10 years and have repatriated voluntarily to Afghanistan at least three years before the data for this thesis were gathered. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for collecting primary data from participants for the thesis. Twelve young returnees from Kabul City, aged 18 to 40, volunteered to take part in the interviews. Results revealed that language barriers, cultural knowledge and environmental challenges were some of the dominant difficulties that returnees experienced after their repatriation. Furthermore, the findings showed that the three main strategies used by the young returnees to adapt to their unfamiliar, new environment of Kabul City included social interaction, using mass media, and keeping an open mind on current issues. The findings of the interviews revealed the ongoing changing nature of identity formation of the returnees after their repatriation to Afghanistan and, also the majority of participants (9 out of 12) voiced a strong sense of belonging and attachment to Afghanistan.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(社会健康医学) / 甲第23119号 / 社医博第115号 / 新制||社医||11(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科社会健康医学系専攻 / (主査)教授 近藤 尚己, 教授 万代 昌紀, 教授 川上 浩司 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Public Health / Kyoto University / DFAM

This research paper highlights the prospects and challenges of ongoing peace process efforts.Since February 2020, peace talks among Taliban and Afghan government have been a historicalmoment for long awaiting peace to come to Afghanistan.The Afghan nation, the world, and regional players have embraced this historic milestone andare determined to support the Afghan government's efforts for peace, and the Taliban have beenencouraged to take a strategic posture in peace talks, trying to achieve a long-term outcome.This study aims to recognize the ongoing development in the peace process in light of eventstaken place in the Afghan diplomacy to steer peace. The prospective of peace is examined bytheories of Charles Webel & Johan Galtung’sa Peace Building and Oliver Richmond’s PeaceFormation if peace will come out of the Intra-Afghan talks. The study also aims to focus onstrengths and weaknesses of the peace negotiation process to identify possible causes andfactors that hinder the peace process.Keywords: Afghanistan, Peace, Intra-Afghan Peace Talks, Peace Formation, Diplomacy, Statebuilding, Ashraf Ghani, Afghan Peace

After being dumped by the love of her life, a woman hopes to spite her ex and her commandeering mother by ‘ending it all’ - but each attempt to kill herself gets thwarted by her inability to do it right.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-100).

Although efforts have been made by the Afghan government and its international partners to promote the tents of gender equality in Afghan society, biases against women and other marginalized groups persist in the society and media sector, particularly. The current study is a timely research because feminist media studies are an under-researched field in the context of Afghanistan. My research aims to be a contribution to this field and open a path for Afghan feminist media studies. The current study explores the representations of gender relations in transnational television soap operas broadcast on Afghan television stations, audiences’ decoding of the representations, and the role of the media in promoting social change. The selected soap operas for the study are Paiman and Qesay Maa, Turkish television soap operas dubbed in the Dari language. The current study is based on feminist theory and feminist methodology, providing a balance of content and reception analysis. Drawing on feminist media studies and focusing on media representations, the content analysis of transnational soap operas echoed previous studies on representations of gender relations and indicated that gender relations are often portrayed in stereotypical and traditional manners. The content analysis further demonstrated that women are objectified in different ways and are often represented as domestic, passive, selfless beings in men’s service. Moreover, relationships between women are often based on rivalry, hatred, and shaming and often without any particular reason. The study also found that contrary to women, men are often represented at outdoor and professional settings. Additionally, grounded on encoding/decoding model through a feminist lens, the thematic analysis of focus group discussions demonstrated that audiences constantly interact with media text and actively make meaning. Interestingly, FGD findings further indicated that as active viewers, both female and male participants, derive multiple and often diverse meanings from the media text. Although both female and male participants problematize the content of transnational soap operas, their interpretations of representations of gender relations and gender equality are dissimilar. The study concludes that transnational soap operas, and the media in general, can play an important role in promoting social change in Afghanistan, particularly gender parity through the Entertainment-Education strategy. However, an intersectional framework is essential in designing EE programmes for promoting gender equality in a diverse society like Afghanistan.