Thesis (D. Phil.)--University of Ulster, 1985. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 556-591).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Peshawar, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 162-171).

Diss.--Zürich--Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, 1990.

This thesis explores the encounter between the Afghan-American community and the U.S. military-industrial complex in the production of cultural knowledge for counterinsurgency (COIN) operations in Afghanistan. It focuses on the narratives mobilized as 'expertise' by Afghan-American contractors from the major diaspora hubs in California and Virginia, who were employed as role-players, translators, and cultural advisors by the U.S. military and defense contractors. I discuss how such narratives gained currency and shaped the perceptions of Afghanistan in the U.S. foreign and security policy communities. The goal of the thesis is to demonstrate the extent to which COIN-centered cultural knowledge production both defined political strategies toward Afghanistan and also reconstituted the Afghan diaspora in America. The thesis contributes to emergent ethnographic studies on militarism by looking at its effect on American society in general and the Afghan diaspora in particular. The broader application of the thesis findings is to move beyond critiques of the troubled connection between anthropology and the military, and to analyze the relationship between citizens and the state in terms of national and biopolitical security.

This is an integrative paper aiming to encapsulate the themes of my previously published work upon which this PhD is being assessed. This work; encompassing several papers and various chapters of my book are attached behind this essay. The research question, examines the effect of Western support to warlords on political legitimacy in the post 9/11 Afghan war. I contextualise the research question in terms of my critical engagement with the literature of strategists in Afghanistan during this time. Subsequently, I draw out themes in relation to the available literature on warlords, politics and security in Afghanistan. I highlight the value of thinking about these questions conceptually in terms of legitimacy. I then introduce the published work, summarising the focus of each paper or book chapter. Later, a ‘findings’ section addresses how the policy of supporting warlords has affected legitimacy through its impact on security and stability, the political settlement and ultimately whether Afghans choose to accept the Western-backed project in Afghanistan, or not. I argue that this issue is important as it has security implications not just in the immediate region, but increasingly, throughout the Middle East and possibly further.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / Anyone who tries to tell a conventional story about an unconventional war is a damned liar. Shrapnel is an experimental novel structurally designed to reflect the distance, despair, and rage felt by a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The author of this work, Andrew M. Swanson, is a veteran of Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and has served in the prestigious 173rd and 82nd Airborne as an infantry paratrooper between 2000 and 2006.

Attacken den 11 september 2001 mot USA och World Trade Center blev händelsen som startade hela världens krig mot terrorism. I och med detta har flertalet terrornätverk dykt upp och terrorismen har lämnat få människor opåverkade. Detta arbete syftar till att analysera hur attacken på World Trade Center påverkade händelseförloppet i USA och den militära insatsen. Genom att använda John Wardens teori om luftrumskontroll kommer en jämförande studie mellan hur luftstridskrafterna användes under konflikten i Kosovo år 1999 och under den i Afghanistan för att förklara likheter och skillnader. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ dataanalys av rapporter skrivna i direkt närhet till respektive konflikt. Undersökningens resultat visar på ett väl organiserat och standardiserat sätt att utföra luftstrid på. En tydlighet i taktiken där fokus genomgående, i respektive konflikt, läggs på samma sorts mål. Men även tydliga skillnader mellan konflikterna går att särskåda men det påpekas dock att en direkt kausalitet mellan dessa skillnader och attacken är svår att peka ut. Slutligen förs en diskussion kring hur attacken kan ha påverkat den insats som gjordes i Afghanistan genom en jämförelse mellan båda konflikterna. Under senare av konflikterna kan exempel på en offensivare politik och ett högre politiskt operationstempo tydas. Kanske kan det vara tecken på ett större stöd hos befolkningen? Det kan i sin tur mycket väl ses som en direkt följd av terrorattacken den 11 september 2001.

This submission includes two studies, based primarily on the use of historical archives, of the Afghan wars from 1978 and the Iraq War from 2003. Breeding Ground: Afghanistan and the Origins of Islamist Terrorism (2011) is a study of various layers of the Afghan conflict: the 1978 communist coup; the 1979 Soviet invasion and America’s proxy war against the Soviet occupying forces in the 1980s; and the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s. It shows how Islamist groups allied to the West against Soviet and Afghan communism turned into enemies of the United States, with consequences including the September 11, 2001 attacks, President George W. Bush’s retaliation against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and the invasion of Iraq. Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan (2010) is an analysis of the George W. Bush presidency in terms of its “war on terror.” The books thus study the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts in the context of United States foreign policy, with particular emphasis on the interests, actions and motives of actors in the conflicts and the interactions between internal and external actors. The central argument is that these factors contributed to the development of a “culture of violence,” defined as that “condition in which violence permeates all levels of society and becomes part of human thinking, behavior and way of life,” and how this provided space for “terrorist” groups to operate.

No description available.

Within the framework of urban communication, this thesis attempts to "read" the urban space of West Kabul in Afghanistan, as a social and cultural text in order to understand the social exclusion of the Hazara people, a socially and politically disenfranchised ethnic group who predominantly inhabit that area. Based on data gathered through documentary research and non-participant field observations, this thesis argues that the urban space of West Kabul is the spatial manifestation of a systematic exclusionary process, through which, the Hazara people have been deprived from access to political, economic and cultural resources, services and opportunities. It interprets the city planning, distribution of resources, urbicide, streetscape, architecture and the body as the main sites where the social exclusion of the Hazaras in West Kabul is exercised. This study also provides a discussion about the historical evolution of West Kabul as an ethnic ghetto, as well as the various forms of conflict which led to spatial and social division in Kabul city.