Bakgrund: Trots att Afghanistan har ratificerat kvinnokonventionen, d v s förpliktat sig att följa konventionen, förekommer det dagligen tvångsäktenskap i Afghanistan. Syfte: I denna uppsats har jag belyst vilka faktorer, som kan ligga till grund för att tvångsäktenskap (fortfarande) existerar i Afghanistan. Urval: Intervjuer har genomförts med sex personer, verksamma inom hjälporganisationer och det statliga organet Afghanistans oberoende kommission för mänskliga rättigheter i Afghanistan. Metod: Jag har valt en att använda en kvalitativ intervjumetod. Resultat: I min studie har jag kommit fram till att den afghanska staten måste utöka sina insatser och genomföra genomgripande förändringar, för att tvångsäktenskap ska kunna förhindras. Domstolar och andra rättsliga institutioner, som arbetar för kvinnorättigheter främst tvångsäktenskap, bör finnas tillgängliga i hela landet. De kvinnliga rättigheterna måste tas på större allvar av den afghanska staten. De afghanska kvinnorna bör informeras om sina juridiska rättigheter, vad gäller deras rätt att neka till äktenskap, liksom vilket stöd staten kan erbjuda. Staten måste även tillse att de mänskliga rättigheterna följs, angående medborgarnas rätt till utbildning och jämlikhet mellan könen. Slutsats: Trots att tvångsäktenskap enligt landets grundlagar är förbjudet, följs inte dessa inte i praktiken, utan kränkningar och förtryck mot kvinnor är vanligt förekommande i det patriarkala afghanska samhället på alla nivåer.

Advisory activities form a central element of the U.S. National Security Strategy to mitigate the need for employment of large military formations. The commitment of large U.S. combat formations has resulted in more than 6,000 fatalities since September 11, 2001; poor relationship skills were cited as contributing factors in 51 or more fratricide-murders of U.S. soldiers by Afghan compatriots in 2012. Informed by social exchange theory, servant leadership theory, and role theory, the Army conceptual rapport framework provided a lens for this phenomenological symbolic interactionism study of rapport between Afghan counterparts and U.S. advisors. Participants included 15 English-speaking Afghan soldiers, police, and government officials. Data from semi-structured interviews conducted via Internet or telephone were manually coded and analyzed for overarching themes. Findings indicated that mutual understanding and respect were principal components to building rapport, and rudimentary use of Afghan languages by U.S. advisors provided symbolic value that contributed to rapport development. Findings may contribute to positive social change by informing advisor employment policies, enhancing preparatory training, and improving relationships between U.S. advisors and the foreign leaders with whom they work.

Military conflicts have become nonlinear and the interrelated political and socio-economic changes within these conflicts have created new challenges for American policymakers. A tool called Wallis' Propositional Analysis (PA) suggests a new paradigm that includes thinking about complexity and robustness/systemicity in a policy. The purpose of this single case study was to determine how the PA paradigm adds heuristic value to complex policy decision-making. A backdrop of Wallerstein's complexity theory and complex adaptive systems (CAS) guided this study. This study examined policy statements from the Obama administration on the Afghanistan and Pakistan conflicts in late December 2009. Data were coded and analyzed using Wallis' specific methodological approach that includes a systematic analysis of the policy's propositions and complexity and robustness/systemicity. Key findings indicated that the PA paradigm offers a heuristic method for how to think about the interrelated propositions within a policy that reflect the expected changes the policy intends to make. Specifically, this study demonstrated that an interwoven PA structural approach to policymaking affords the policymaker a method to consider the complex and nonlinear changes in the policy environment. By applying the PA paradigm, policymakers can positively impact social change by exploring policy options that consider a range of possible outcomes from the policy proposal, prior to policy implementation.

Over 2.1 million United States military service members have deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Nearly 40% of OEF/OIF service members meet criteria for an alcohol use disorder post-deployment. Minimal research has addressed alcohol misuse among military healthcare professionals despite the prevalence of alcohol abuse among civilian providers. This study explored whether military healthcare professionals involved with OIF/OEF operations have increased risk for alcohol misuse (i.e., problem drinking, heavy weekly drinking, heavy episodic drinking). Three evidence-based hypotheses were evaluated: (a) among OEF/OIF military personnel, healthcare professionals would have an increased likelihood of alcohol misuse compared to service members in other occupations; (b) personnel who screen positive for PTSD would be more likely to screen positive for alcohol misuse outcomes versus personnel who screen negative for PTSD; and (c) personnel with enlisted status would be more likely to endorse alcohol misuse compared to personnel with officer status. Participants were drawn from 81,247 military personnel enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective, longitudinal cohort study investigating health consequences of military service. Chi-square tests of independence identified significantly different demographic characteristics between participants in the first and second enrollment panels and resulted in participants being divided into subgroups based upon their enrollment panel and baseline alcohol use. Participants who had complete data at baseline and all follow-up waves were included in the primary multinomial logistic regression analyses used to identify variables associated with each alcohol use outcome over time. Results suggested that being a healthcare professional did not influence alcohol misuse outcomes. A positive screening for PTSD was associated with greater endorsement of alcohol misuse outcomes across most participant subgroups, and holding enlisted status was associated with problem drinking and heavy episodic drinking in some participant subgroups. Additional variables associated with alcohol misuse outcomes included being younger, male, using tobacco, and belonging to the National Guard/Reserve. The results of this study suggest that, while alcohol-related interventions may not need to be tailored to specific occupations, alcohol use screening and treatment should continue to be focused on at-risk groups to enhance troop health and functioning.

The question of what makes a person, or a society develop has been asked countless of times. There are many factors that can influence this. This research will seek to explore whether culture matters in relation to a person’s personal development. The present study interviewed twelve Afghan immigrants living in Sweden and investigated whether they felt like culture adjustment was necessary in order for them to develop. The study is using an abductive approach as the respondents' answers are analyzed in firsthand while the theoretical framework is used as a guidance throughout the research. Lawrence E. Harrisons theory was conducted as the theoretical framework. Harrison was a professor who believed that culture affects a person's ability to develop (Harrison, 2000, p. 2). This research contributed to the prevailing literature by analyzing this topic from a bottom-up perspective by interviewing the Afghan immigrants and presenting their perspectives. Further research regarding this topic would be appreciated as the research gap still needs research to be filled. The findings of this study suggest that the twelve Afghan immigrants do not feel like a person has to adapt to Swedish culture to develop. By rather mixing different cultures and being openminded they feel has helped them to develop. Further, Harrison is arguably too categorical, hence, it is not feasible to categorize people by culture because development is different from person to person.

The American war in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history, yet there has seemed to be no clear argument for continuing the war for almost two decades. Unilateral withdrawals in counterinsurgency wars are not uncommon, especially if the other party involved is viewed as nondemocratic. This qualitative case study has investigated the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan and was guided by the key concepts of national interest, balance of power and security from realism, and the concepts of democratic peace theory, interdependence and international institutions from liberalism. This essay argues that it was mainly due to the decrease of the American national interest of Afghanistan as the attention turned towards the changing power structure in Asia as well as coping with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic domestically. This study has provided an overview of the withdrawal reasons for the United States, whilst showing that there is yet much to inquire on the subject.

To analyse the war in Afghanistan from different theories is nothing new to the studies of international relations. However, one aspect that yet has been studied regarding the Afghan war is the withdrawal of troops and civilian personnel and why it occurred in August 2021 and not earlier or later. This lack of knowledge creates a research gap which needs to be filled to explain why President Biden went through with the withdrawal, even though the president knew that the Taliban would seize power in Afghanistan. This thesis will therefore explain the Biden administration's decision to continue the military and civilian withdrawal from Afghanistan even though the threat of Taliban takeover was imminent. The method chosen for this thesis is a qualitative content analysis which will be used to analyse the material with the help of leadership trait analysis and the bureaucratic politics model theories. The material which was used war press statements, speeches, and committee hearings. As the analysis shows, the decision to withdraw was a compromise between actors which was possible due to Joe Bidens openness to information. In summary, this thesis offers one explanation to why the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan.

This thesis has three main aims. The first is to clarify Hobbes's contractualism and to derive the nature, origins and solutions of war from key concepts in Hobbes's theory. The second aim is to analyze whether there is any connection between Hobbes' contractualism and civil war or conflict given that Hobbes grew up when there was civil war in his homeland and he expressed his views on civil war in the book Leviathan. A third aim is to use Hobbes' contractualism to illuminate and try to explain civil conflict in Afghanistan, a country that has been marked by civil conflicts for almost five decades.  For a civil conflict to be classified as an armed conflict, at least one of the parties must be a non-state actor, and Afghanistan is a country where the Taliban is classified as a non-state actor whose aim is to seize state power by force. Afghanistan is a country that is known for its civil conflicts therefore it will be interesting to prefer that country as an example in this work.  When analyzing Hobbes' contractarianism and civil war, Hobbes' book Leviathan was used to explain Hobbes' view on civil war and how the inhabitants can cooperate and sacrifice their natural rights to form a society with a sovereign who can keep peace and make laws that can be beneficial for all the people. The conclusion is that Hobbes makes good arguments in the book Leviathan for how to resolve civil conflicts and how citizens benefit from making peace with each other through a sovereign.

Security Sector Reform (SSR) is considered a significant feature in post-conflict peacebuilding efforts typically employed by states and international partners. Recently, the concept of SSR has played a significant role in the statebuilding process in Afghanistan after the Taliban regime; however, a disorganised and unplanned withdrawal poses severe threats to the security sector. This thesis explores the SSR efforts made by the western states after the end of the Taliban regime. The holistic approaches present in policy and strategy documents are quite challenging when it comes to SSR implementation in a post-conflict country ruled by an insurgent group for years. This thesis illustrates two competing approaches that show how SSR played a role in the post-conflict peacebuilding within Afghanistan and how peace spoilers and US/NATO withdrawal will impact the gains of twenty years in SSR. In order to better analyse the SSR process, a case study of the Afghan National Police is used. Moreover, this thesis offers some practical policy recommendations that can be useful for the concept of SSR in Afghanistan. This thesis does not offer a solution to the challenges of SSR in post-conflict countries like Afghanistan. Yet, it suggests that an uncoordinated withdrawal of external powers can negatively...

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