Browsing by Subject "Afghanistan"
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Item Digitizing ethnonational identities : multimediatic representations of Puerto Rican soldiers(2012-05) Avilés Santiago, Manuel Gerardo; Kumar, Shanti; Mallapragada, Madhavi; Arroyo-Martínez, Jossianna; Rivero, Yeidy; Fuller, JenifferThe silence and invisibility of Puerto Rican soldiers in fictional and non-fictional representations of U.S. Wars has motivated me to look for alternative spaces in which these unaccounted voices and images are currently being produced, stored, circulated, and memorialized. Within this framework, my dissertation explores the self-representation of Puerto Rican servicemen and women in social networking sites (SNS), (i.e. as MySpace and Facebook), in user-generated content (UGC) platforms, (i.e. YouTube), and also in web memorials. I am interested in understanding how Puerto Rican soldiers self-represent their ethnonational identity online within the overlapping of second-class citizenship. The theoretical framework proposed for this research will apply theories such as 1) articulation; 2) the notion of contact zone; and 3) colonial/racial subjectivities. To complete this goal, my research method draws on online ethnography, textual, and critical discourse analysis. Firstly, I will discuss the limited repertoire of images of Puerto Rican soldiers in TV and film. My argument is that, besides the massive omission of this history, the images and motifs that do escape de facto social censorship will be in conversation with the self-representations. The second chapter is the result of four years of the process of online ethnography on which I analyze the instances of self-representation of Puerto Rican soldiers in SNS. My interest was seeing how those spaces were inflected by an ethnonational subjectivity. The third chapter explores the ways Puerto Rican soldiers, embedded in mash-up cultures, uses UGCs platforms to upload videos that transform the soldiers from passive consumers of images to active producers of content, which tend to disrupt dominant narratives of power. The last chapter explores the emergence of web memorials dedicated to the Puerto Rican soldiers. My main argument is that these instances of self- representation in online spaces are in conversation with the moments of silences and misrepresentations of Puerto Rican soldiers in traditional media, but also have become acts of enunciation in which the particular Puerto Ricanness of the Puerto Rican soldier is affirmed within complex, layered histories of imperialism, racism, heterosexism, and second-class citizenship.Item Help wanted, help needed : post 9/11 veterans reintegration into the civilian labor market(2013-05) Weaver, Courtney Lynn; Heinrich, Carolyn J.; Ferguson, MiguelSince the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, military personnel participating in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have been plagued by traditional barriers to successful labor market attachment such as health and mental health concerns, employer stigma, and difficulty translating military training and experience to the civilian market, but also by a lagging economy. Veteran status since Vietnam has historically been linked to negative employment outcomes over the life course. Currently, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an unemployment rate of 9.5% for male Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, and a 12.1% rate for their female counterparts. Veterans aged 20-24 have a 20.1% unemployment rate, nearly five points higher than that of their civilian peers. To compound the problem, an overly passive labor market policy prevents access to education and training that civilian employers value most. As Veterans continue to separate from the armed forces the United States, employers and policymakers can choose to capitalize on their skills, experience, and willingness to serve, or risk alienating another generation of young service members. This paper addresses five key categories that serve as barriers to successful labor market attachment and summarizes both governmental and private-sector programs designed to assist military personnel in their transition to civilian work. Finally, it provides policy options for remedying the post-9/11 Veterans labor market transition problem through improving service coordination and delivery, deliberately developing human capital through military service, and increasing employer responsibility for skill development and labor market attachment.Item Measurement to Intelligence: Feature Extraction, Modeling and Predictive Analysis of Asymmetric Conflict Events(2014-06-06) George, Stephen MThe conflict events that comprise asymmetric warfare are a primary killer of both combatants and civilians on the modern battlefield. Improvised explosive devices (IED) and direct fire (DF), the most common of these attacks, claim thousands of lives as conventional and unconventional forces clash. Computer-based predictive analysis can be used to identify locations that are useful for these events, potentially providing the awareness needed to disrupt or avoid attacks before they are launched. In this dissertation, I propose an analytical framework for predictive analysis of asymmetric conflict events. This framework incorporates a tactics-aware system model based on attacker roles that is populated with a set of geomorphometric and visibility-constrained features describing terrain and proximity to necessary supporting structures. Features that identify and assess the utility of terrain for use by risk-averse attackers are important contributors to the model. Statistical learning is used to extract spatially and temporally constrained tactical patterns. These patterns are then used to predict the utility of future or unvisited locations for conflict events. Major contributions of this dissertation include: (1) A concise, accurate feature representation of conflict events in non-urban environments; (2) A system model based on attacker roles that captures the tactical patterns of conflict events; (3) Accurate conflict event classification algorithms that support predictive analysis; and (4) A novel method for detecting and describing features that support risk-averse attackers. The framework has been implemented and tested on real-world IED and DF data collected from the conflict in Afghanistan in 2011-2012. Several learning techniques are assessed using two dimensionality reduction schemes under a variety of spatial, temporal and combined constraints. A resource-unconstrained version of the framework accurately predicts conflict events across a wide range of terrain types and over the 19 months covered by available data. A limited version of the framework that assumes less computational capability provides useful predictive analysis that can be performed in mobile and resource constrained environments.Item Puritan Military Justice: American War Crimes and the Global War on Terrorism(2012-07-16) Lorenzo, RonaldExploring Puritanical cultural habits in the 21st century American military, the following study focuses on U.S. Army courts-martial in the Global War on Terrorism. The study uses Emile Durkheim's original sociological interpretation of crime and deviance. That interpretation is linked with responsibility as described by Durkheim's follower Paul Fauconnet in Responsibility: A Study in Sociology ([1928] 1978) and with a new cultural reading of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ([1905] 1976). The study is an inductive, descriptive examination of the Puritanical aspects of American military culture based on its treatment of acts labeled as deviant and criminal in the Global War on Terrorism. Four sets of war crimes are included in the study: Abu Ghraib (which occurred in Iraq in 2004), Operation Iron Triangle (which occurred in Iraq in 2006), the Baghdad canal killings (which occurred in Iraq in 2007), and the Maywand District killings (which occurred in Afghanistan in 2010). My data include primary data collected through participation and observation as a consultant for courts-martial related to all the cases except Abu Ghraib. Records of trial, investigation reports, charge sheets, sworn statements, and other documentation are also included in the study as secondary data sources. The study illuminates how unconscious, Puritan cultural habits color and shape both military actions and their perceptions. I explore Puritanism and its influence on military law, responsibility, revenge, "magic" (in its sociological sense), and narcissism. The study concludes with observations and recommendations for changes in U.S. military law.Item Ramparts of empire : India's North-West Frontier and British imperialism, 1919-1947(2009-05) Marsh, Brandon Douglas; Louis, William Roger, 1936-This study examines the relationship between British perceptions and policies regarding India’s North-West Frontier and its Pathan inhabitants and the decline of British power in the subcontinent from 1919 to 1947. Its central argument is that two key constituencies within the framework of British India, the officers of the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service, viewed the Frontier as the most crucial region within Britain’s Indian Empire. Generations of British officers believed that this was the one place in India where the British could suffer a “knockout blow” from either external invasion or internal revolt. In light of this, when confronted by a full-scale Indian nationalist movement after the First World War, the British sought to seal off the Frontier from the rest of India. Confident that they had inoculated the Frontier against nationalism, the British administration on the Frontier carried on as if it were 30 years earlier, fretting about possible Soviet expansion, tribal raids, and Afghan intrigues. This emphasis on external menaces proved costly, however, as it blinded the British to local discontent and the rapid growth of a Frontier nationalist movement by the end of the 1920s. When the Frontier administration belatedly realized that they faced a homegrown nationalist movement they responded with a combination of institutional paralysis and brutality that underscored the British belief that the region constituted the primary bulwark of the British Raj. This violence proved counterproductive. It engendered wide-scale nationalist interest in the Frontier and effectively made British policy in the region a subject of All-Indian political debate. The British responded to mounting nationalist pressure in the 1930s by placing the Frontier at the center of their successful efforts to retain control of India’s defence establishment. This was a short-lived stopgap, however. By the last decade of British rule much of the Frontier was under the administration of the Indian National Congress. Moreover, the British not only concluded that Indian public opinion must be taken into account when formulating policy, but that nationalist prescriptions for the “problem” of the North-West Frontier should be enacted.Item Repatriation and state reconstruction : tracing the agency of Afghan returnees in the face of human insecurity(2015-05) Wojdyla, Stella Maria; Hindman, Heather; Miller, PaulSince the beginnings of the Afghan refugee crisis, aid agencies have provided consistent and substantial relief to Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran. However, the response was framed by the assumption that mostly short-term humanitarian aid is re-quired because refugees will return to Afghanistan once the conflict ends. This report challenges the "conflict-refugee" concept by focusing on refugee agency in the face of human insecurity and the complexity of Afghan population movements, which include transnational networks, mixed migration, and hybrid identities. The discussion concentrates on the period from 2002 to 2005, when UNHCR facilitated sizable surges of voluntary returns while the Afghan state was still in the initial reconstruction phase. Regardless of UNHCR's repatriation program, the refugee crisis persisted as a significant number of repatriates decided to return to Pakistan and Iran or cross the border repeatedly. To explain the causes and consequences of this phenomenon of refugee backflows, I offer the following argument: The backflow of repatriated refu-gees consisted of both voluntary and forced migrants. Voluntary migrants continued ex-isting practices of circular migration to pursue their preferred livelihood strategies. Forced migrants, however, responded to human insecurity in Afghanistan with migratory coping strategies as their only available form of agency. This distinction has several implications for future reconstruction and repatriation efforts: On the one hand, reconstruction plans should integrate the potential constructive effects of voluntary migration. These effects include remittances, the transfer of human capital, as well as the reduction of pressures on the labor market, infrastructures and so-cial services in the transitional state. On the other hand, UNHCR should only facilitate repatriation once a minimum level of human security on all levels is guaranteed to ensure safe and dignified returns and prevent continued forced migration.Item Revenge and Responsibility in Contemporary War Crimes and Courts-Martial(2012-02-14) Garcia, AprilThis project seeks to address the recurring theme of revenge within war as exhibited in the recent upsurge of war crimes within the past ten years. To begin, I present an overview of Emile Durkheim?s perspective on punishment from The Division of Labor in Society. I argue that contemporary punishment is still primitive in nature and maintains a retributive form. This synopsis opens the discussion of two key factors within punishment: revenge and responsibility. To analyze these key elements, I conduct a content analysis utilizing courts-martial transcripts not readily available to the public for the recent cases of Operation Iron Triangle, the Baghdad Canal Killings and the Afghan Kill Team murders. As a historical comparative to the latest war crimes, I also analyze the My Lai case from Vietnam, using documentary transcripts with veterans involved in that operation. Throughout the analyses of all four cases, I employ the work of Paul Fauconnet?s Responsibility which further develops Durkheim?s ideology of revenge and augments our own understanding of collective and individual responsibility in society. I close this project with a discussion on Fauconnet?s ?law of war? and its implications for soldiers enlisted in war time.Item The sound ascending(2011-05) Brown, David Asher; Welcher, Dan; Rowley, RickThe sound ascending is a musical theater work for two actors, four singers and piano. This project was a collaboration with playwright, Jason Tremblay. The story is a loose adaptation of Orpheus descending, by Tennessee Williams. Displaced from the rural, American South, most of our story takes place in Mazer, Afghanistan. Jason and I attempted to create an untraditional model. The work lies somewhere between a musical, oratorio and a song cycle. We both walked away with mixed feelings about the success of the work, following a preliminary premiere. I believe that the work is successful in its drama and storytelling. But in such a confined presentation, the work needs more diversity of material and character strength. Although complete for now, Jason and I plan on revising The sound ascending in the coming year. Most significantly, this project has been a learning experience. We both take away valuable lessons about writing and collaboration.Item The unintended consequences of border politics(2010-12) Jackson, Jeffrey Stephen; Minault, Gail, 1939-; Louis, RogerThis report explores the reasons why the Pakistan tribal areas have become a haven and hotbed of radicalism and the steps being taken to reestablish control and to promote peace and stability in the region. It begins with a brief overview of the recent history (1893 to Partition) of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by the political and cultural ramifications in the area due to the creation of Pakistan. Religion, tribal customs, socio-economic development and the unique political relationship between the FATA and the central government must be considered when forming policy recommendations and planning future engagements. The article concludes with an examination of recent initiatives by the U.S. and Pakistan to pacify the area, to include short term and long term strategies, and describes the ramifications of failure.Item The war at home : a veteran's use of critical design methods for post-deployment reintegration(2015-05) Perez, Jose Manuel; Catterall, Kate; Sonnenberg, StephenMany combat veterans underestimate the on-going traumatic effects of war, effects that eventually surface in civilian life, causing health, relationship and career problems. During a deployment, emotions such as vigilance, anger, and fear are beneficial for the soldier and aide in coping with multiple combat-related adversities. Suppression of emotions that do not assist the soldier or mission during deployment is necessary and becomes habitual as it helps the soldier stay motivated and focused for the duration of the deployment. Post-deployment, the coping mechanisms previously necessary for survival, contribute to the difficulties of reintegration. The problems encountered by veterans can include, but are not limited to: social withdrawal, economic decline, self-medication, and most problematic, suicidal tendencies. As a veteran myself, I began to ask, is there another way to prepare veterans for re-entry to civilian life, to prevent unnecessary hardships and tragedies, educate them in unfamiliar ways, and perhaps contribute to an effective healing process? As a designer I approached these questions, searching for a way to communicate the adversities veterans face from an unexpected angle. Presented here are prototypes, diagrams, and warning systems designed to help veterans 1) be more self-aware and alert to the symptoms of posttraumatic stress and depression, 2) engage the armed forces and the VA in a discussion about innovative and more effective ways to talk about and treat the psychologically damaged soldier, and 3) foster communities to support veterans in their re-entry to civilian life. The objects I designed for my thesis exhibition are not intended to correct a complex problem such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or moral injury. Instead, they are created as a collection of tools to facilitate difficult conversations, provoke thought, and as an alternative approach to reach combat veterans who are in their own process of reintegration. My work is one method to process the effects of war through a non-destructive practice for those veterans who may not pay attention to the wall of pamphlets or other forms of disseminating information.