The wars in the Middle East (Afghanistan and Iraq) in which the United States has been involved are widely debated and often seen as asymmetrically full-scale wars. What is characteristic of these conflicts are that there is no research to map these conflicts regarding the US application of hybrid warfare. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of US contemporary warfare by consuming the modern theory of New Generation Warfare (NGW) on the conflicts in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. The ambition is, therefore, to consuming the existing theoretical starting point to analyse existing research in the field to contribute to the war science research. The conclusions drawn from this study are that US contemporary warfare is moving in the same direction as Russia. It has shown that US contemporary warfare is a precursor to Russian contemporary warfare, which is characterized by military interventions with special operations forces and fewer conventional forces with great emphasis on psychological and information operations. Based on the analysis of the Middle East conflicts in which the United States has been involved.

The master thesis examines the involvement of the United States of America, Germany and the Czech Republic in post-conflict reconstruction and state building in Afghanistan through their Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT). The aim of the thesis is to find out to what extent the Provincial Reconstruction Teams represent their founder countries' effort of state building in Afghanistan, and to deduce the differences among their attitudes to state building in Afghanistan by comparing their PRTs' activities. Countries directly found their PRTs and therefore their attitude to state building in Afghanistan should be reflected in the activities of their PRTs. The PRTs should reflect the priorities of their founder countries in reconstruction of Afghanistan. This thesis begins with outlining the links among the PRTs, state building and NATO's comprehensive approach and counterinsurgency strategy which pays attention to the civilian aspects of fighting wars. The U.S., German and Czech preferences regarding the state building are examined through their foreign policy documents. Activities of the U.S., German and Czech PRTs are analysed to verify, whether they correspond to their countries' proclaimed aims in the field of state building in Afghanistan.

This paper deals with the post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan after the NATO-invasion at the end of 2001 and its success. To ensure the stability of the country, the NATO-led coalition had not only to overthrow the Taliban regime, but also to create basic government structures and help them perform. Reconstruction is of course very common and necessary after conflict, it is however usually operated by strictly civilian measures, e. g. government institutions and humanitarian organisations. In this case, however, such approach was not possible due to volatile security situation, which in some areas grew to such intensity, it essentially became a war-conflict again. This paper focuses on the Herat province and NATO units, especially under ISAF command. It seeks to define the process of post-conflict reconstruction and using the process-tracing method, it then ascertains the extent to which ISAF units dedicated themselves to post-conflict reconstruction and made a positive progress in this area. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The goal of this work is to record and reflect private memories of modern Czech war veterans from the Afghanistan mission as well as to write an integrated text about a topic which has not been interpreted yet. The core of the matter is focused on situations which happened in Afghanistan, what the narrators experienced, faced or felt and what they cope with. I am dealing with these topics: preparation for mission, choice of people, leave-taking, the first moments in mission, war essence, enemy image, interpersonal relations, intimate life, financial estimation, mascots and comeback. I tried to catch their unusually common lives of army professionals and their operations in an abroad mission (lapped from leaving till returning life phase). The primary source of the diploma work is based on interviews lead by a method of oral history with modern Czech war veterans from mission in Afghanistan. The text also props upon available memoir literature of fact, study, researches, magazines, diary, Internet articles and filmography. During the reflection of mission memories of Afghanistan, the observed plane is as historical - political as military. The main benefit of this work is setting the imaginary bases for the further similarly oriented researches in the area of new age military historiography and...

With the recent take back of the country by the Taliban, Afghan women’s experiences of[in]security have again become top-of mind for many. Yet, this renewed focus perpetuates anexisting imagery of Afghan women as powerless victims, with a few rebellious heroines. Thisimage, instrumentalizing women’s experiences, fuels different political agendas that are oftennot helpful to the women. To provide a more authentic image of the women’s sensemakingand experiences of [in]security, I therefore interviewed five Afghan women using a life-storymethodology where the women were included in all stages of the research process. Duringthis project, I took a feminist and critical approach to security: the woman herself defined theconcept, its impact on her life, and how she managed it. Contrary to other similar researchprojects, I asked the women about times they felt safe instead of unsafe to lessen any retraumatization, and to emphasize their opportunity for agency. Listening to the women’sstories, I interpreted the every-day as a site where they enhanced their agency in the face ofloss of control brought on by pervasive insecurities, something they described as a continuousprocess to create safe spaces. During this process, I identified an analytical pattern of how thewomen understood, and thus went about creating these safe spaces, that of adjustment andresistance. Albeit with movement between the two. This pattern shows how complex thewomen’s understanding and reaction to insecurities were as well as their responses, which iskey to understand for any future support for the women of Afghanistan.

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Despite the amount of studies conducted in the field and actions taken, gender-based violence continues to be rampant in both Afghanistan and Armenia. This study investigates potential causes and factors as to why the two societies look and function the way it does. By conducting a comparative case study by using a most similar system design, the aim with the thesis is to gain a broader understanding of why the women of Afghanistan and Armenia are suffering to these levels. Experiences of Afghan and Armenian women will be studied together with the legal and social construction of the countries. The study is primarily based on the theoretical framework of factors contributing to gender-based violence. The combination of sources that have been selected and used have done so in order to create as fair and representative a picture of Afghan and Armenian society and the experiences of the women living there as possible.

Considering that the greatest fear of deploying military personnel is separation from family, an obvious and overlooked psychological phenomenon that merits further investigation is loneliness. In this study, 131 US troops completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale, Anxiety Control Questionnaire, and a leisurely activity participation scale to predict loneliness with participation in non-work activities in the presence of another moderator (locus of control) and various demographic factors. As hypothesized, the results indicated that 1) the best non-work activity predictors of loneliness were emailing friends and listening to music, 2) external locus of control was positively correlated with loneliness and internal locus of control was negatively correlated with loneliness, and 3) loneliness was positively correlated with length of time deployed.

Although the topic is trending globally, clear steps forward for female leadership are yet to be made. This is impacted even more by the fact that little empirical research has been conducted to examine the attitudes towards females in managerial positions from different countries' point of view. Therefore, the aim of this research is to get an understanding of the current state of affairs of female leadership in a more global context, with input from both developed and developing countries. Specifically, it explores the similarities and differences of female leadership challenges in Afghanistan and The Netherlands. To explore challenges experienced by, as well as strategies of, Afghan and Dutch female leaders, a qualitative study was conducted. Ten semi-structured interviews were done in-person and through video calls, consisting of 5 interviews for each country. Ten participants, meeting the criteria of holding a leadership/management position, were chosen through convenience sampling. The results showed significant similarities and differences in female leadership challenges, as well as strategies.  The unfortunate entanglement of culture in Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, has resulted in the oppression of female leaders. In the Netherlands, female leadership progress appears idealized. Nevertheless, female leaders in both countries share similar strength and strategies to cope with challenges themselves because society seemingly fails to bring change. As the results also show leadership skills specific to female leaders, societies and organizations worldwide should spread awareness and take action in gender equality, unlocking the full potential of female leadership.

Contemporary conflicts are marked by support relationships between partners for the purpose of achieving common goals, namely partnered military operations. These have been seen to amplify positive or negative repercussions of conflict, like civilian harm and restraint from such. This study explores what influences restraint in partnered military operations by examining the effect of civilian casualty tracking, and asking how does the implementation of civilian casualty tracking mechanisms affect restraint in partnered military operations? This study builds on liberal internationalism, attributing restraint to external pressures. This thesis hypothesises that restraint in a partnered military operation will be higher, the more comprehensive the civilian casualty tracking. Using the method of within-case comparative analysis, resembling a structured focused comparison, the hypothesis is tested on the case of Afghanistan. Results indicate support for the theorized relationship, as low comprehensiveness of civilian casualty tracking is correlated with low restraint, while comprehensive civilian casualty tracking is correlated with higher restraint. The correlation is in line with the expected direction, yet not perfect, indicating that other variables may influence restraint in interaction effects. Further research is needed to determine causal factors and trace underlying mechanisms.