While there exists in the literature on refugees’ rights a broad consensus on the existence of an overlapping and common ground between IHRL and IRL, gaps continue to exist in state implementation of these two legal systems. Concepts of sovereignty and border control continue to take predominance when refugees are the rights-bearers, and this tendency is more pronounced in the event of complementary protection. This thesis investigated the recent creation of a temporary protection status in the Danish Aliens Act by legal method and political case study to understand the interrelation of these systems, as manifested by the ECHR and the Refugee Convention. The legal analysis revealed the amendments’ misinterpretation of the principle of good faith of treaty interpretation. The political reasoning behind the amendment was used to shed light on domestic alignment with international law, in order to clarify the political and moral function of human rights. It was suggested that the main challenge to such misinterpretations remains the separation of human rights with its inherent moral purpose.

The main purpose of this work is to investigate if the US ́s killing of Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011 in Abbottabad in Pakistan was lawful. The background to the killing is what happened on 11 September 2001 when four US airplanes were hijacked and crashed into World Trade Center and Pentagon. Al Qaeda, a terrorist organisation led by Osama bin Laden, was immediately suspected for the attacks, which led to the starting point of the US ́s ‘global war on terror’. This work tries to give a short brief on ‘global war on terror’ and answer if there is a global war on terror and/or if a new category of war is needed. In order to get an answer to the main question of this work I had to investigate if US is in an international armed conflict or in a non-international armed conflict with Al Qaida. Another important question to investigate is if an armed conflict in one State can spill over to another State and still be consider as an armed conflict. Other important questions to answer are, if Osama bin Laden was a legitimate target under international humanitarian law, if he was a civilian or if he had a continuous combat function and what level of participation in hostilities he had? Not less important is also to investigate if human rights law is applicable when Osama bin Laden was killed, especially the fundamental right to life. Lastly I end my investigation with a quick review of the laws of jus ad bellum in order to get an answer if US had a right to resort to force in Pakistan. My conclusion is that the US was not involved in an armed conflict with al Qaeda in Pakistan where the killing took place. The conflict between the US and al Qaeda in Afghanistan is to be categorised as a non-international conflict. This conflict cannot be described as a conflict that has spilled over to Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed. All people, including Osama bin Laden, has a right to life. Because of lack of information on what happened in Abbottabad when Osama bin Laden was killed it is impossible to give a clear legal answer if the US had the right to kill him. It could be lawful, but it could also be considered as a crime against international human rights law.

Normatively, protecting civilians from the conduct of hostilities is grounded in the Geneva Conventions and the UN Security Council protection of civilian agenda, both of which celebrate their 70 and 20 year anniversaries in 2019. Previous research focusses heavily on protection of civilians through peacekeeping whereas this research focuses on ‘non-armed’ approaches to enhancing civilian protection in conflict. Prior research and experience reveals a high level of missingness and variation in the level of available data on civilian harm in conflict. Where civilian harm is considered in the peace and conflict literature, it is predominantly from a securitized lens of understanding insurgent recruitment strategies and more recent counter-insurgent strategies aimed at winning ‘hearts and minds’. Through a structured focused comparison of four case studies the correlation between the level of quality, timely and consistent data on civilian harm and affect on the conduct of hostilities will be reviewed and potential confounders identified. Following this the hypothesized causal mechanism will be process traced through the pathway case of Afghanistan. The findings and analysis from both methods identify support for the theory and it’s refinement with important nuances in the factors conducive to quality, timely and consistent data collection on civilian harm in armed conflict.

O presente trabalho é fruto de uma pesquisa desenvolvida com sujeitos pertencentes a populações oriundas de comunidades rurais de regiões da cordilheira dos Andes que foram atingidas pela violência durante as décadas do conflito armado interno no Peru, de 1984 a 2000. O principal objetivo deste estudo foi analisar as narrativas de vida desses sujeitos, considerando-se a memória como processo de reconstrução, essencial para ressignificar a vida na cidade após esse processo migratório traumático. Nessa análise, tecemos uma discussão acerca dos Direitos Humanos em situações de conflito armado e a condição de deslocados internos em relação aos refugiados. Nossos sujeitos deslocaram-se forçadamente, expulsos do campo rumo à reconstituição da vida em uma região urbana, no terceiro Estado mais pobre do Peru. Esse contexto apresentou problemas em relação ao modo de vida dessas pessoas que viviam imersas em sua cultura andina, em que a adoração à Mãe Terra é o centro das relações comunitárias, até que a experiência de deslocamento forçado os alcançou. Em busca da compreensão da constituição desses sujeitos, esta dissertação se fundamenta principalmente nos conceitos de memória de Halbwachs (2003, 2004) e Bosi (1994, 2003), de experiência de Benjamin (2012) e Larrosa (2002) e de narrativa de vida de Bertaux (2010). Apresentamos uma discussão sobre a memória como resistência e como arma, segundo propõe Schilling (2009). E discorremos sobre a ruralidade, conforme propõe Carneiro (1997), enquanto dimensão que perpassa a identidade de nossos sujeitos. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma abordagem qualitativa e utilizamos, como procedimentos metodológicos, a entrevista de caráter biográfico e a observação de campo. Por ter sido um processo de imersão, pautamo-nos nas entrevistas do tipo etnográfico, conforme considerado por Beaud e Weber (2007), ou seja, entrevistas realizadas no contexto estudado, porque não estão isoladas nem são independentes da situação de pesquisa, já que levam em conta a realidade social a que pertencem esses narradores. Nas análises, buscamos refletir sobre as narrativas de violência, considerando as práticas culturais que caracterizam esse grupo social, e o reconstruir da vida na cidade após o processo migratório, no sentido de entendermos a constituição desses sujeitos na condição de violência e desenraizamento. Escolhemos a violência como núcleo de significação porque são as ações do conflito armado que marcam profundamente esses sujeitos de forma a promover o intenso fluxo de migração forçada da população do campo para a cidade. Procuramos entender de que forma a violência surge nas narrativas de lembranças e marca esses sujeitos, tendo em vista as rupturas com a comunidade de pertencimento e implicações para a vida. E também analisamos as histórias contadas pelos sujeitos, com vistas ao período que antecedeu à migração e ao que se relaciona à reconstrução da vida no contexto urbano, quando eles passam à condição de deslocados internos. Interessou-nos conhecer de que forma a memória colaborou com esse processo de reedificação em relação à cultura como eixo estrutural desses indivíduos. / This work is the result of a research developed with subjects in populations from rural communities in the Andes mountains regions that were affected by violence during the decades of internal armed conflict in Peru, from 1984 to 2000. The aim of this study was to analyse the life narratives of these subjects, by considering memory as a reconstruction process, essential to reframe life in the city after this traumatic and migration process. In this analysis, we have a discussion about human rights in situations of armed conflict and also on the condition of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in relation to refugees. Our subjects were forced to move, expelled from the countryside towards the reconstitution of life in an urban context, the third poorest state of Peru. This context shows problems compared to Andean lifestyle, where the worship of Mother Earth is the center of community relations, until their forced displacement experience reached them. In pursuit of understanding of these subjects structures, this thesis is based mainly on the concepts of memory of Halbwachs (2003, 2004) and Bosi (1994, 2003), experience as conceived by Benjamin (2012) and Larrosa (2002) and life narrative of Bertaux (2010). It also brings a discussion about memory as resistance and as a weapon, as proposed by Schilling (2009) and a discussion about rurality, as proposed by Carneiro (1997), as a dimension that permeates our subjects identities. The research was conducted in a qualitative approach using as methodological procedures biographical interview and field observation. Because it was an immersion process, we rely on ethnographic interviews as considered by Beaud and Weber (2007), i.e. interviews in the research context since they are not isolated nor are independent of the research situation as they consider the social reality to each one of the tellers belongs. In the analyses, we try to reflect about the narratives of violence, considering cultural practices that characterize this social group, and the rebuilding of life in the city after the migration process, in order to understand the constitution of these subjects on conditions of violence and uprooting. We chose violence as a meaning core because these actions of the armed conflict deeply marked these subjects in order to promote the intense flow of forced migration of rural people to the city. We seek to understand how violence emerges in narratives of remembrances and affects these subjects, bearing in mind the disruption with the community of belonging and implications for life. And we analysed the stories told by the subjects, concerning the period previous to the migration and the one related to the reconstruction of life in the urban context, when they their condition became of IDPs. We were interested in knowing how memory collaborated with this process of rebuilding in relation to culture as a structural axis of these individuals

Gewaltsamer Konflikt ist eine der hartnäckigsten Bedrohungen des Lebensunterhalts und der Nahrungssicherheit von Individuen weltweit. Trotz einer wachsenden Literatur, die die Ursachen und Folgen von Konflikten untersucht, bestehen nach wie vor erhebliche Verständnislücken, die zum Teil auf einen Mangel an qualitativ hochwertigen Konfliktereignisdaten zurückgehen. Mit Hilfe moderner ökonometrischer und statistischer Methoden trägt diese Monographie empirisch zur Literatur bei, indem sie sich mit drei miteinander verknüpften Themen befasst: (i) die Auswirkungen von Gewalterfahrungen auf Radikalisierung; (ii) das Ausmaß von Verzerrungen ("bias") in medienbasierten Konfliktereignisdaten; sowie (iii) die Rolle von Gewalt in benachbarten Gebieten für die Vorhersage von Ausbruch und Eskalation von Konflikten. Erstens zeigt eine Analyse des Gaza-Krieges von 2009, dass Menschen, die Gewalt direkt ausgesetzt sind, radikale Gruppen im Durchschnitt weniger unterstützen. Wenn frühere Wahlpräferenzen statistisch einbezogen werden, besitzt Gewalt jedoch eine polarisierende Wirkung im Wahlverhalten. Zweitens schätzt eine Auswertung syrischer Konfliktereignisdaten basierend auf internationalen und nationalen Quellen, dass Medien über nur knapp zehn Prozent der auftretenden Ereignisse berichten. Zudem ist die Berichterstattung stark räumlich und nach Konflikt-Akteuren verzerrt. Drittens stellt sich anhand von Paneldaten kleiner geographischer Zellen heraus, dass die räumliche und zeitliche Dynamik von Gewalt starken Einfluss auf sowohl den Ausbruch als auch die Eskalation von Konflikten an einem bestimmten Ort hat. In hochaufgelösten Analysen erhöht Gewalt in benachbarten Raumzellen jedoch nicht die Vorhersagekraft des Modells. Auf Grundlage der empirischen Befunde entwickelt diese Arbeit eine neue Methode zur Erhebung von Konfliktdaten, die auf direkte Informationsquellen vor Ort zurückgreift ("crowdseeding"), um Politik und Forschung verlässlichere Daten zu bieten. / Violent conflict is one of the most persistent challenges affecting the economic livelihoods and food security of individuals worldwide. Despite the surge in literature studying the impacts and drivers of armed conflict, there remains notable knowledge and methodological gaps, particularly regarding the quality of conflict event data. Using various advanced econometric and statistical techniques, this monograph contributes empirically to this literature by studying three interrelated issues. (i) The impact of violence exposure on radicalization; (ii) the magnitude of selection and veracity biases in media-based conflict event data; and (iii) the significance of incorporating violence in nearby locations in predicting armed conflict onset and escalation. First, evidence from the 2009 war on Gaza shows that individuals who experienced violence directly are less likely, on average, to support radical groups. However, when controlling for past electoral preferences, the results reveal a polarization effect among voters exposed directly to violence. Second, by matching conflict event data from several international and national media sources on the Syrian war, media reports are found to capture less than 10\% of the estimated total number of events in the study period. Moreover, reported events across the sources exhibit a systematic spatial clustering and actor-specific biases. Third, using a grid-level panel dataset, the temporal and spatial dynamics of violence, among other geographic factors, are found to significantly drive both conflict onset and escalation. However, violence in neighbouring grids does not enhance the prediction of armed conflict when using high precision units of analysis. In addition to these main findings, I propose and discuss a novel methodology, namely crowdseeding, for collecting conflict event data which works directly with primary sources on the ground to provide reliable information for researchers and policy-makers alike.

Depuis 1990, l’Afrique de l’ouest connait une phase complexe dans sa sécurisation et dans la lutte contre les conflits armés. Constamment déstabilisés par des tentatives de coups d’Etat militaires, les pays de l’Afrique de l’ouest, notamment la Côte d’Ivoire, le Libéria et la Sierra Léone ont bénéficié d’une aide de la communauté internationale pour le règlement des sources de conflit et le redressement de leurs institutions dans le cadre d’une démocratisation globale des pays africains. Malgré cette ingérence dans les affaires internes des Etats, les stratégies adoptées par organisations internationales pour sortir la sous-région ouest africaine de l’instabilité et l’insécurité continuent de poser problèmes. Les Etats restent encore fragiles. Dans l’aide apportée, les différentes agences spécialisées des Nations unies construisent plutôt un ensemble de réseaux avec les organisations non gouvernementales internationales (ONGI) pour la gestion des conséquences des conflits armés. Ces ONGI, tout en participant à la stratégie globale de sortie de crise renforcent leur position au niveau national tout en s’ouvrant à de nouvelles missions d’assistance. Malgré les différentes dispositions prises par la CEDEAO, l’Organisation de l’Unité africaine et de l’Union africaine pour prévenir les conflits et trouver des mécanismes pour leurs gestions et leur règlement, les pays étudiés ne parviennent pas à consolider durablement la paix. Les Etats membres profitent du chaos généré, luttant plus pour leurs propres intérêts que ceux de la sécurité et le retour à la paix. Face à ce manque de cohérence dans les actions et aux limites des stratégies adoptées jusque-là, la résolution des conflits armés en Afrique de l’ouest continue de suscité interrogations, amenant à proposer une nouvelle approche de la résolution des crises armées en Afrique. Cette thèse vise donc à comprendre les stratégies des organisations internationales, leur efficacité et leur faiblesse dans le retour à la paix et le renforcement des institutions démocratiques. / Since 1990, the West African states face insecurity and the struggle for armed conflict resolution. They are mostly destabilized by military coup. International community support Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the research of conflict solutions and the building of democratic institutions in the African states. Instead of the interference of the international organization in the African’s internal affairs and the strategies adopted, the insecurity continues to be a real problem for the stability of the sub-region. The states continue to be fragile. According to the assistance of UNO specialized agencies, an international Non-Government Organization (INGO) network is built around the assistance activities, to support the consequences of the armed conflicts. The INGO make the most of the opportunities to reinforce their position in the state and to create others activities to improve their business. Despite all positions of ECOWAS, African unity organization, and African Union to prevent conflicts and to find mechanisms of the management and peaceful solution, the states are not able to build a long term peace. The member states make the most opportunity of the insecurity of the sub region. Theirs strategies are to protect their own interests instead of finding solutions for peace. This behavior and the incoherence in theirs peace-actions continue to be subjects of discussion. This makes think another approach of conflict resolution in Africa. My research is to analyze the strategies of the international organizations, their strength and their weakness in peacekeeping and the capacity-building of African democratic institutions.

Le rapport de pouvoir qui régit les relations entre homme et femme engendre des inégalités qui sont la non-effectivité des droits des femmes, les stéréotypes ciblant souvent les femmes et les violences à l’égard des femmes. Ces inégalités notables en période normale ou de paix s’aggravent durant les crises sociopolitiques et de conflits armés où la violence sexospécifique est désormais érigée en arme de guerre pour détruire l’adversaire, son identité et son peuple. L’objectif de ces recherches est de relever les impacts, les enjeux du genre et de la réalité identitaire dans les crises et conflits tout comme dans le processus d’édification de la paix. A travers la vie sociopolitique du Togo et de la Côte d’Ivoire pris pour cas d’espèce, il s’agit d’observer la situation de crises et de conflits armés dans un pays, l’impact des appartenances identitaires et l’aggravation de l’inégalité du genre, puis relever les conséquences des crises et l’importance des femmes dont la négligence participe à l’échec des processus de paix, enfin viser la prise en compte des identités et du genre dans les processus de recherches de la paix. / The power dynamics that govern the relationship between man and woman creates inequalities that are the non-effectiveness of the rights of women, the stereotypes often associated to women as well as violence against them. These significant inequalities in normal times or peace times, worsen during the sociopolitical crises and armed conflicts where gender based violence (GBV) is now established as a weapon of war to destroy the opponent, its identity and its people. The objective of this research is to address the impacts, issues of gender and identity during crises and conflicts as well as during peacebuilding processes. Using the socio-political life of Togo and Côte d'Ivoire as case studies, the research seeks to observe the situation of crisis and armed conflict in a country, the impact of belonging to an identity, and the worsening of gender inequality and addresses the consequences of the crises and the importance of women whose negligence contributes to the failure of peace processes, and finally aims at the inclusion of identity and gender as important considerations in peacebuilding process.

O deslocamento forçado na Colômbia entendido como as migrações de pessoas dentro das fronteiras do país geradas ou forçadas pelas ações de violência dos grupos armados colombianos, posiciona hoje o país como o segundo no mundo com o maior numero de pessoas deslocadas forçosamente depois da Síria -segundo o relatório do Centro de Monitoramento do Deslocamento Interno (IDMC, na sigla em inglês) (2015). Desde 1985 a 1º de agosto de 2016, 7.844.527 pessoas têm sido deslocadas no país segundo o Governo da Colômbia, quase 15% da população total na atualidade. Nesta pesquisa se analisa a partir de uma perspectiva espacial o deslocamento forçado na Colômbia analisando através do mapa as relações entre conflitos sociais e espaço geográfico. São representadas e modelizadas as características e dinâmicas do fenômeno ao longo do tempo a partir de diferentes técnicas do mapeamento e da modelização gráfica. Paralelamente, é desenvolvido um estudo da evolução espaço-tempo do fenômeno social utilizando econometria espacial para estabelecer as correlações espaciais entre deslocamento e conflito armado, a partir de uma abordagem estatística. E num terceiro componente desta pesquisa, se desenvolve uma análise da política pública do Governo da Colômbia que responde às vítimas da violência no marco do conflito armado, incorporando como ferramenta de análise a cartografia produzida nesta pesquisa. Como parte dos resultados se constata que o deslocamento forçado é um fenômeno dinâmico que não se distribui aleatoriamente no espaço e pelo contrario apresenta concentração espacial. A cartografia mostra que o deslocamento não tem tido o mesmo comportamento ao longo dos anos, as migrações de pessoas têm diminuído no norte do país incrementando o volume no oriente e pacífico sul, aproximadamente a partir de 2008 quando este conduta se acentua. Da mesma forma se evidencia que os principais destinos da população deslocada são os polos econômicos e populacionais do país, onde geralmente a oferta de programas de atenção e reparação a vítimas é maior. / Forced displacement in Colombia, understood as the migrations of people within the borders of the country generated or forced by the violent actions of the Colombian armed groups, making it the country with the second highest number of internally displaced people in the world after Syria - according to the report from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) (2015). Since 1985 to August 1st 2016, 7.844.527 persons have been displaced in the country according the Government of Colombia (GoC), almost 12 percent of the current Colombia\'s population. In this study is analyzed the internal displacement in Colombia using a spatial perspective, where through the map is analyzed the relations between social conflicts and geographic space. The characteristics and dynamics of the phenomenon are represented and modeled over time from different techniques of mapping and graphic modeling. In parallel, is developed a study of the space-time evolution of the social phenomenon using spatial econometrics to establish the spatial correlations between displacement and armed conflict, from a statistical approach. And in a third component of this research, is developed an analysis of the public policy of the Government of Colombia for attention of the violence\'s victims within the framework of the armed conflict, incorporating as tool of analysis the cartography produced in this research. As part of the results it is verified that the forced displacement is a dynamic phenomenon that is not distributed randomly in space and on the contrary presents a spatial concentration. The cartography shows that the displacement has not had the same behavior over the years; the migrations of people have diminished in the north of the country, increasing the volume in the east and pacific south, approximately from 2008 when this trend is accentuated. In the same way, it is evident that the main destinations of the displaced population are the economic centers and main cities of the country, where the offer of programs of attention and reparation to victims is greater.

Esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar as ações militares lideradas pelos EUA no Afeganistão, em 2001, como resposta aos notórios ataques terroristas de 11 de setembro daquele ano contra o WTC e o pentágono, tendo como o foco confrontar os argumentos jurídico-políticos dos EUA utilizados no sentido de qualificar suas ações militares no referido conflito armado pretensamente sob a égide da legítima defesa, com os argumentos jurídicos trazidos pelas normas, usos e costumes e doutrina do direito internacional. Na primeira parte do trabalho, são relatados, mediante a utilização da doutrina internacional, e de documentos de política externa, os fatos envolvendo o conflito armado no Afeganistão de 2001, expondo os principais acontecimentos, segundo uma ordem cronológica, abordando também as Resoluções da ONU sobre tais eventos. Também será exposta uma breve síntese contendo uma contextualização histórica e geopolítica sobre o Afeganistão. Na segunda parte do trabalho, são destacadas algumas das seqüelas produzidas por tais fatos, quais sejam: a Estratégia de Segurança Nacional dos EUA, lançada em 2002, também conhecida como a \'Doutrina Bush\', com a respectiva política de ataques preventivos; e a subseqüente e polêmica invasão militar norte-americana ao Iraque em 2003, que ficou conhecida como a Segunda Guerra do Golfo. Finalmente, na terceira parte do trabalho, faz-se um enfrentamento mais direto dos argumentos utilizados pelos EUA para legitimar, sob o manto da legítima defesa individual ou coletiva, o uso da força contra o Afeganistão, expondo, para tanto, contra-argumentos lastreados no Direito Internacional vigente, contendo, em primeiro lugar, a evolução histórica da regulação do uso da força e do sistema de segurança coletiva, a imperatividade das normas internacionais que autorizam o uso da força, e suas exceções legítimas. Demonstrada a solidez dos arts. 2 (4) e 51 da Carta da ONU, e da Resolução 3314/74 da Assembléia-Geral da ONU, \"Definição de Agressão\", conclui-se pela ausência, no conflito objeto deste estudo, do elemento caracterizador da legítima defesa, o ato de agressão atribuível a um determinado Estado (o Afeganistão); da usurpação das limitações ao seu exercício: a proporcionalidade e provisoriedade da situação criada; bem como alertando-se sobre os riscos inerentes na redução dos requisitos previstos pelo artigo 51 da Carta das Nações Unidas. / This dissertation aims to analyze the actions led by the U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, in 2001, in response to the notorious terrorist attacks occurred on 11 September 2001 against the WTC and the Pentagon, mainly focusing on comparing all legal and political arguments which U.S. claim to qualify their military actions in the aforementioned armed conflict under the aegis of self-defense, with the legal arguments brought by the rules, practices and customs of international law and doctrine. In the first part of the work, by using the international doctrine, and documents of foreign policy, the facts involving the armed conflict in Afghanistan in 2001 are reported outlining the main events, according to a chronological order, and also addressing the UN Resolutions on such events. It will also be exposed on a brief contextualization of Afghanistan\'s history and geopolitical situation. In the second part of work, some of the sequels produced by such facts are highlighted, which are the following: the U.S. National Security Strategy, launched in 2002, also known as the \'Bush Doctrine\', containing its policy of preventive attacks, and also the subsequent and controversy U.S. military invasion of Iraq in 2003, which would became known as the Second Gulf War. Finally, in the third part of the work, there will be a more direct confrontation between the arguments used to legitimize the U. S. actions against Afghanistan, under the mantle of individual or collective self-defense, and therefore the counter-arguments supported by the existing international law, that will inc1ude, firstly, the historical evolution of the regulation of the use of force and the collective security system, the imperative international law that grants the legitimate exceptions for the use of force. Whereas there will be demonstrated the consistency of the artic1es 2 (4) and 51 of the UN Charter and the Resolution 3314/74 of the UN General Assembly, \"Definition of Aggression\" it is conc1uded that in this specific armed conflict, an essential element of self-defense is not present: an aggression attributable to a specific state (Afghanistan); and also are missing all the limitations required during self-defense exercise: the proportionality and the provisional character of the created situation in Afghanistan; lastly it is underlined the inherent risks of reducing the requirements established by Article 51 of the UN Charter.

This thesis offers a critical feminist reading of the war in Afghanistan, from invasion, through the practice of counterinsurgency, to the training of the Afghan National Army as a central part of NATO's exit strategy. Empirically it focuses on the discourses, policies and practices of the US and Norwegian militaries in Afghanistan. It draws on a range of material including military doctrine and policy, parliamentary discussions, public policy documents, interviews, political statements and soldiers' memoirs. Deploying the theoretical framework of performative gender with an emphasis on embodiment, it shows how particular gendered bodies are called into being and how the distinct practices of war in Afghanistan produce and rely on a series of multiple, fluid and, at times, contradictory performances of masculinity and femininity. It demonstrates how gendered performances should not be considered superfluous, but rather integral to the practices of war. It illustrates this, first, by examining the production of the (in) visible ‘body in the burqa' alongside the ‘protective masculinity' of Western politicians in the legitimation of the invasion; second, through the ‘soldier-­‐scholars', ‘warriors' and the Female Engagement Teams (FETs) in practices of ‘population­‐centric' counterinsurgency, examining the ways in which counterinsurgency is a gendered and embodied practice; and third, through the remaking of the fledgling Afghan National Army (ANA) recruits in the NATO exit strategy. The thesis furthers feminist studies on gender and war in International Relations by emphasising the multiplicity of gendered bodies and performances by problematizing singular notions of masculinity and femininity. It contributes to existing literature that reads the war in Afghanistan as a neocolonial and biopolitical practice, enhancing these readings by paying attention to the gendering of bodies and their performances, thereby expanding critical investigations into late modern ways of war and counterinsurgency.