Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Johnson, Thomas H. ; Hafez, Mohammed M. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 27, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Suicide terrorism, female suicide bombers, martyrdom, constructivism, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, counterinsurgency, insurgency, Pashtun, Taliban, Haqqani Network, Tamil, LTTE, Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-156). Also available in print.

Afghanistan steht vor einem Wendepunkt. Die Lage beim Abzug der NATO/ISAF-Truppen gibt wenig Anlass zum Optimismus. Zwar wurden gewisse Fortschritte bei der Entwicklung des Landes erreicht, insgesamt ist die Lage jedoch hinsichtlich Sicherheit, politischem System und Wirtschaft beunruhigend. Afghanistan gehört nach wie vor zu den ärmsten Ländern der Erde und ein anhaltender Frieden ist nicht in Sicht. Im Gegenteil: Die Mehrheit der Afghanen fürchtet die Zukunft.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Letitia L. Lawson. "December 2006." AD-A462 614. Includes bibliographical references (p.67-75). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Afghanistan has been one of the most protracted conflicts modern era, but theories of civil war onset fail to explain the war’s causes or its patterns of violence. This thesis examines the origins of the post-2001 period of the conflict through the perspective of state formation; although many civil wars today unfold in newly-forming states, the processes of center-periphery relations and elite incorporation have been little studied in the context of political violence. The thesis first describes how Afghanistan’s embeddedness in the international state system and global markets undermined the nascent state’s efforts to centralize and bureaucratize, leading instead to warlordism and neopatrimonialism. Second, it demonstrates that the development of an insurgency after 2001 was due not to ethnic grievance or rebel opportunities for profit, but rather to the degree to which local elites were excluded from state patronage. Third, it examines the role of ideology and social position in the Afghan Taliban movement. The dissertation seeks to offer a theory of political violence in Afghanistan that can, mutatis mutandis, help explain key features of civil war in newly-forming states.

This study arose from the desire to research the effectiveness of state building policies in Afghanistan. In order to address this topic, I review state building literature and find that state building literature focuses largely on the processes of democratization instead of institution building. In the second part of this dissertation I conduct a comparative case study of Afghanistan during the Soviet and Taliban eras to study the relationship between Pashtun `para-state' institutions (PSI's) and levels of political instability. I hypothesize that Pashtun PSI's compete with central state institutions for popular support thus increasing political instability and reducing state institutional effectiveness. I then conduct process-tracing to study hypothesized causal mechanisms that link Pashtun PSI's and political instability. I find that during the Soviet era, areas with Pashtun PSI's exhibited higher levels of political instability than areas without the presence of Pashtun PSI's. However, during the Taliban era, the results were negatively correlated and southern Afghanistan exhibited reduced levels of political instability. The causal mechanisms of `violence against the government' and `support to the local populace' were present in both cases although the introduction of the variables is different in both cases. This research is foundational in clarifying state building literature. Additionally, this study of Afghanistan moves academic literature towards establishing appropriate measures of effectiveness specific to institution building, which is imperative in assessing the success of future and past state building policies.

During the 2001 war in Afghanistan hundreds of people associated with the Taliban or al Qaeda were arrested by United States forces and transported to the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The legal status and treatment of these detainees has been an ongoing problem over the last five years. The majority have been given no recourse to justice and allegations of inhuman treatment and torture have been frequent. The first issue raised by the incarceration of these people is whether any of them may be entitled to Prisoner of War status. The evidence shows that, in general, the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters were not lawful combatants, and hence they are not entitled to Prisoner of War status. While the rights of Prisoners of War are well documented and generally uncontested, the rights of people not entitled to Prisoner of War status are not so easily definable. Despite classification as unlawful or unprivileged combatants, the detainees are not in legal limbo - they are still entitled to the benefit of certain fundamental human rights. There are applicable protections under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Additional Protocol I, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The main rights upheld by these documents are the right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary detention; the right to a fair trial; and the right to life. Furthermore, there is a requirement of humane treatment and an absolute prohibition on torture. Reports from international humanitarian watchdogs such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch suggest that the United States Government is not upholding the rights held by the detainees. It is essential that the United States Government recognises the fundamental rights owed to the detainees and ensures that they receive the requisite treatment and access to justice.

This diploma thesis deals with the temporal and spatial distribution of Taliban terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. It covers the period since the start of the Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, when the troops of the United States and their allies invaded the country, until the end of 2018. This thesis aims to find out what targets Taliban attacked during the reported period, and whether there is a link between the frequency of terrorist attacks and the real events that took place at the time of the attacks. The secondary aim of this work is to place the results obtained by the analysis into a broader geographical context. Using geographic information system, this thesis evaluates spatial differences in the localization of Taliban terrorist attacks. Data of the Taliban attacks were obtained from the Global Terrorism Database, and the maps were created in ArcGIS software. Within the temporal analysis window, the frequency of attacks is related to the timeline of predetermined important events, such as elections, religious and national holidays and decisions of foreign parties about their activities in the region. It was found that the increased frequency of Taliban attacks was related to the Afghan elections or the decisions of foreign parties about their operations in the region. The...

Amidst the turbulence of political shifts and the re-emergence of the Taliban, this phenomenological research shines a light on the lived experiences, aspirations, and challenges of female undergraduate students in an Afghan university. Through in-depth, qualitative interviews, this study unravels six pivotal themes shaping their collegiate journey: gender-centric oppression, systemic and structural barriers, academic hindrances, family support, and the motivation to endure and prevail amidst profound adversities, such as enforced gender apartheid and stringent clothing mandates. Within an intersectionality framework, this research not only bridges a critical gap in the literature but also serves as a crucial narrative for global academia and policy-making arenas, underlining the imperative for robust advocacy and policy reforms. The stark findings and nuanced insights gleaned from this study underscore the imperative to foster gender equality and educational access, whilst advocating fervently for the re-establishment of inclusive and supportive educational environments for all in Afghanistan.

Yes / This paper develops the notion of ‘Talibanization’ – a concept which stems from the resilience and the determination of the Taliban to remain a dominant player in Afghanistan even after the downfall of their state in 2001. The factors that helped the Taliban to maintain their influence after the disintegration of their state constitute a pattern which could be applied to other conflict-driven areas such as Syria. By critically examining the socio-political conditions in the Syrian district of Jarablus, this paper demonstrates the ways in which the inept post-IS administration is inadvertently helping IS to gain what we call ‘retrospective legitimacy’ a drive which could sustain its influence for many years following its downfall.

The United States has maintained a heavy military presence in Afghanistan for a little more than a decade however; the US has been involved in Afghanistan on and off for over three decades. The 2001 ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan became framed around the goal of saving Afghan women. In order to understand how this framing came about and what the impact of this framing was I study US congressional documents, speeches and other public rhetoric by government officials in the 1980s and early 2000s. Analyzing rhetorical language and reoccurring themes helps us understand what major framing devices and narrative techniques were in play during these time periods. Ultimately I conclude that women’s safety was a post-facto justification for intervention; the framing techniques used during the 2001 were utilized in order to create a clear, coherent narrative that selectively ignores the impact of US involvement in Afghanistan during the Cold War.