Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-68).

Trump’s new year tweet about Pakistan’s role in the fight against terrorism ignited a controversy and a war of words between Pakistani officials and the US. This thesis studies newspaper coverage of both countries on this particular issue. Dawn and The News International are chosen from Pakistan and The New York Times and The Washington Post are selected from US media. The aim of this research is to analyse and compare the media discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was adopted as the most suitable choice. A sum of eight articles, comprising two from each newspaper, is analysed intensively. Outcomes of the analysis are discussed in relation to ‘framing’ and ‘agenda setting’ theories. Five key elements from the theories are listed including: language (vocabulary), conflict presentation, sources, related issues and emphasis. Results reveal that Pakistani newspapers use very strong, rather harsh vocabulary while reporting response to Donald Trump’s tweet. The US newspapers adopted literary phrases and less harsh tone to report this issue. Conflict presentation was focused on Trump’s tweet as a central idea in all the newspapers. Pakistani newspapers focused on the coverage of reaction from military and government officials of the country. On the other hand, US newspapers included sources from both countries to have an objective view. But they have included some controversial issues, which do not have a direct link to this debate starting with Trump’s tweet. Keywords: Twitter and news media, Trump’s tweet about Pakistan, Afghan war, CDA, Framing.

I samband med att Afghanistan själva skall ta över säkerhetsansvaret i landet från 2015 kommer en stor del av framgången bero på den afghanska arméns (ANA) förmåga och färdigheter. Avseende dess kapacitet att klara av denna uppgift har det framförts tvivel. Mot bakgrund av detta kommer den afghanska arméns krigföringsförmåga i nutid att undersökas i denna uppsats i syfte att kartlägga eventuella förtjänster samt brister som i sin tur kanske kan ge en fingervisning om framtiden.   Metoden utgörs av en fallstudie av (ANA) där ett analysverktyg skapas med hjälp av J.F.C Fullers teorier om krigföringsförmåga han framför i sin bok ”The Foundations of the Science of War” och specifikt det han benämner som the threefold order. Krigföringsförmågan delas i sin tur in i fysiska, konceptuella och moraliska faktorer.   Med hjälp av detta analysverktyg sorterar jag undersökningsmaterialet, som framförallt utgörs av rapporter från det amerikanska försvarsdepartementet och kongressen, med hjälp av kvalitativ textanalys.   Avslutningsvis besvaras den övergripande frågeställningen genom en analys av det insamlade undersökningsmaterialet och en avslutande diskussion.   Det övergripande resultatet är att ANA har gjort stora framsteg under de senaste åren men att den samlade krigföringsförmågan bedöms som låg. Inom de fysiska faktorerna är det framförallt den låga krigsdugligheten bland fältförbanden samt inom flygvapnet och stödfunktionerna som drar ner betyget. Inom de konceptuella är det bristen på utbildare, den svaga rekryteringen och utbildningen av underofficerare och olika traditioner inom officerskåren. Det som är sämst är de moraliska faktorerna där framförallt etniska problem och nepotism bidrar till splittring inom armén.

Within the framework of Critical Discourse Studies, this thesis looks at how Hazara peoples’ online activism during the Afghanistan 2009 and 2014 Presidential Elections contributed to promoting civil society and democratic values in Post-2001Afghanistan. The data corpus for this research is a selection of twelve published articles from the four most popular Hazara activists’ affiliated websites: The Republic of Silence, Hazara People International Network, Kabul Press and Hazara Net. Hazara writers applied a critical, but divisive and ethnocentric language to construct a political discourse during the Afghan national elections and polarized Afghan ethnic groups and differentiated between people and politicians. Despite the divisive and polarized discourse strategies in their texts, Hazara writers opened a fresh space for ethnic conversation in the Afghan online public sphere during the elections and enriched Afghan mainstream media discourse. The data corpus unveiled political activism based on historical consciousness, collective adaptability to social changes, and a continuous interest in education and civic activism as main Hazara online themes in post-2001 Afghanistan. These Hazara texts promote one role in particular for Hazaras, and that is to protest yesterday’s oppressive history, correct today's political structures and transform tomorrow's political culture in Afghanistan, so that all activists share something more than race, blood and ethnicity.

After Sweden, among other European countries, received a record number of asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016, the public discussion on integration of newcomers to the Swedish society intensified. One of the important means of such integration, as well as one of the fundamental human rights, is access to relevant information – knowledge refugees need to settle at a new place. This study looks into the information practices of one of the largest group of newcomers to Europe – the Afghans – based on the case of Kronoberg County in the Southern Sweden.   Grounded on Reijo Savolainen’s (2008) theory of everyday information practices, this study applies the combination of McKenzie’s (2003), Mwarigha’s (2002), and Berlo’s (1960) analytical models to explore the informational behavior of asylum seekers and check if it is accommodated in the communication strategies of different agencies involved in the integration process. To reach these objectives, a set of interviews was conducted with both Afghan newcomers and representatives of different governmental and non-governmental organizations.   The results of the conducted research and analysis may be summed up to one major topic. While Swedish reception and integration system is effective in reaching out to the newcomers and providing them with task-related information, the structure of the system impedes the provision of general orienting information and guidance, which is in great demand among the asylum seekers. Therefore, development of a parallel system of information can be noticed, with personal relations and authority of the local opinion leaders in the core of it. It is concluded that such division should not be seen as a threat to the integration of newcomers, rather as a supportive mechanism on its intermediate stage. Still, it is important to promote policies that foster active personal contacts between Swedes and newcomers – for example, mentorship programmes.

This thesis is an historical and literary investigation of the treatment of the 1979- 89 Soviet-Afghan War in contemporary Russian literature. The texts chosen for study include official and unofficial literature, written within the former USSR as well as abroad, and cover publicistic writing, poetry, and prose fiction. These works are described and analyzed with a two-fold purpose: to explore creative trends found in the literature of this subject, and to evaluate the extent to which the genre of Afghan War literature in Russian has changed over the past decade. In order to provide a context for this literature, the introduction describes the method of socialist realism as it applies to military themes, and the legacy of World War Two novels in Russian. The first chapter provides a brief history of Russian-Afghan relations, and an account of the ten-year intervention. The second chapter documents the dissolution of official censorship during the 1980s, revealing dissent over the Soviet military role in Afghanistan. Chapter Three discusses the evolution of the genre of publicistic writing, and documents its unprecedented frankness through revelations made in Soviet journalistic investigations. Chapter Four provides an overview of song and poetry about the conflict, beginning with magnitizdat produced by amateur songwriters, and later including works by professional poets. Chapter Five discusses novels and short stories about the war. A range of fictional works is traced, from propagandistic portrayals, both pro-and anti-Soviet, to non-ideological, personal interpretations which incorporate lyricism, satire, and fantasy. Chapter Six focuses on the works of Aleksandr Prokhanov, a writer who initially used his fiction to support the war effort, and whose oeuvre charts the disintegration of Party consensus on interpretation and depiction of the events in Afghanistan. The final three chapters treat the works of Oleg Ermakov, whose lyricism and stylistic experimentation mark a new direction for recent Russian war fiction. The analysis shows Afghan War literature to signal a radical break with recent official Soviet military writing as shaped by socialist realism. This break is evident in the frankness and subjectivity of publicistic writing, and the anti-war sentiment found in a significant minority of published songs and poems. In particular, Oleg Ermakov's prose continues the past legacy of unofficial, dissident war fiction.

The 2001 campaign in Afghanistan where precision airpower and special operation forces alongside indigenous allies were used to topple the Talibans has brought debaters to argue whether it was a revolution of warfare or a fluke. Stephen Biddle has argued that this Afghan Model is deeply dependent on the indigenous ally being at least as skilled as its enemy. Ten years later, a similar concept was used in Libya to overthrow the Gaddafi-regime. This paper examines and compares the skill of the rebels and the regime forces fighting on the ground in Libya, in order to test Biddle’s Afghan Model theory. Hence, the purpose for this study is to broaden the understanding as to when and how often the Afghan Model may be used. Initially, rebels demonstrated low levels of tactical skill in comparison to regime forces. However, rebels gradually improved their skills and by the end of the fighting, months later the skill gap had been reduced considerably. Without drawing a definite conclusion, the analysis indicates, that skill of the indigenous ally in order for the Afghan Model to work is of importance, however not to the same degree as presented by Biddle.

This study aims to investigate on the social and cultural integration experiences of Afghan women in Sweden, in terms of their social networks and their socio-cultural practices. In addition, this paper questions where the Afghan women feel belonging to and what factors shape this sense of belonging. For this reason, a qualitative methodology is applied and the data is compiled through semi-structured interviews with ten Afghan women residing in Malmö, Sweden, with using both focus group interviews and individual interviews as the data collecting procedures. The concepts of socio-cultural integration, sense of belonging and social network have been utilized as the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the study. With regards to social networks, this research intends to investigate on the social interactions of the participants with people of their own ethnic group and also with Swedes. Regarding the socio-cultural practices, the eating habits and the holiday celebration and participation of Afghan women participating in the research are examined as indicators of their cultural integration. The findings of the study reveal that language proficiency is considered as the key factor for socio-cultural integration among the participants. In general, the participants experience different levels of social interactions both with other Afghans and with Swedes. The study also shows that while the participants are committed to the Afghan cultural practices such as eating Afghan foods and celebrating their holidays, they also welcome some of the Swedish cultural practices. In addition, mutual respect has a fundamental place in Afghan women‟s interactions with the host culture and values. Moreover, the participants of this study experience different notions of belonging, and factors such as their family ties, safety, and discrimination vs. acceptance shape their feeling of belonging to both Sweden and Afghanistan. In general, the findings of this study confirm Beg‟s statement (2005) that Afghan women are not a homogenous group, and experience different varieties of socio-cultural integration and different notions of belonging.

The purpose of the study is to understand/investigate how unaccompanied boys from Afghanistan experience their identity and identity development in interaction with Swedish culture and Swedish society. Qualitative data collection methods have been used in the form of semi-structured interviews. The material has been analyzed on the basis of identity development theory and the theory of ethnic identity. Based on the study's gathered empirical data and analysis, important results found that experiences of identity development in unaccompanied boys are strongly influenced by Swedish society and Swedish culture. The majority of the informants expressed that their identity has been affected and changed a lot during the time they lived in Sweden and that influence has helped these young people to develop a new identity. In order to be a part of the majority society and integrate well into society, this influence on identity has been positive and important for the informants. The study’s results also show that the informants have managed to find a balance between the new identity and their ethnic identity.

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