Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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Item WOMEN’S AUTONOMY AND REPRODUCTIVE AND PERINATAL HEALTH OUTCOMES IN AFGHANISTAN(2024) Ibrahimi, Sahra; Thoma, Marie; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies show that women’s autonomy (WA)--as measured by household decision making, healthcare decision making, and permission to go out--facilitates access to resources, including education, employment, and healthcare resources. In return, these resources determine maternal and child health. Prior studies, conducted in countries other than Afghanistan, have resulted in inconsistent findings because the degree and direction of the association between WA and health outcomes differ among countries based on their laws and cultural context. There is no research examining the impact of WA on reproductive and perinatal health outcomes in Afghanistan. Conducting this research in Afghanistan is critical given the country’s unique political and socio-cultural environment that shape its population health. For instance, less than one in two of Afghan women make decisions about their healthcare, while 53% of them have experienced physical domestic violence. The 2021 ruling of the country by the Taliban has exacerbated the violation of women’s rights in Afghanistan, making the examination of the impact of WA on reproductive health outcomes even more pertinent. My dissertation addresses these gaps in the literature by examining the association between women’s autonomy and 1. experience of domestic violence types (physical, sextual, and emotional), 2. unintended pregnancy, and 3. pregnancy loss. I also assess the moderating effect of education on the association of WA and domestic violence, and the mediating effect of domestic violence on the association of WA and unintended pregnancy and pregnancy loss. I used data from 19,098 married women aged 15-49, who completed the 2015 Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey- the first and only national survey administered in the country. WA was measured across 5 domains (healthcare, visiting family, household purchases, spending, and contraceptive use). Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between WA and the outcomes of interest were estimated using multiple logistic regression and adjusted for relevant confounders including age, ethnicity, education, wealth, residency, and parity. Additionally, to assess moderation and mediation, interaction terms and casual mediation models were used for each respective analysis. I found that about one in two Afghan women did not have autonomy in making decisions and experienced domestic violence, and approximately one in ten women experienced unintended pregnancy and pregnancy loss. In Aim 1, in the adjusted Model 2 (adjusting for confounders), women’s autonomy in healthcare decisions (Adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=0.70, CI: 0.60-0.81), spending (AOR=0.58, CI: 0.51-0.66), visiting families (AOR=0.69, CI: 0.60-0.80), household purchases (AOR=0.59, CI: 0.52-0.68), and not using contraception (AOR=0.66, CI: 0.46-0.93) were significantly associated with decreased experience of physical violence. In addition, women’s autonomy in healthcare decisions (AOR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.39-0.65), spending (AOR=0.62, CI: 0.48-0.80), and household purchases (AOR=0.56, CI: 0.43-0.72) were significantly associated with decreased experience of sexual violence. Lastly, women’s autonomy in healthcare (AOR=0.82, CI: 0.72-0.94), spending (AOR=0.61, CI: 0.53-0.71), visiting families (AOR=0.79, CI: 0.70-0.88), and not using contraception (AOR=0.58, CI: 0.42-0.80) were significantly associated with decreased experience of emotional violence. We also found a greater protective effect of WA in visiting family among women with some education (vs. no education) across each domestic violence outcome. In Aim 2, Model 2, women’s autonomy in healthcare decisions (AOR=0.87, CI: 0.77 - 0.97) and spending (AOR=0.86, CI: 0.76 - 0.97) were significantly associated with decreased experience of unintended pregnancy. However, women’s autonomy in visiting families (AOR=1.15, CI: 1.02 - 1.29) was associated with slightly increased experience of unintended pregnancy. This association was partially mediated by physical and sexual domestic violence (21% of total effect mediated by domestic violence) in that the reduction of violence with WA attenuated the effect of WA on unintended pregnancy. Lastly, in Aim 3, Model 2, women’s autonomy in healthcare decisions (AOR=0.86, CI: 0.78 - 0.95), household purchases (AOR=0.87, CI: 0.79 - 0.97), and visiting families (AOR=0.90, CI: 0.82 - 1.00), were significantly associated with decreased experience of pregnancy loss. Some of the protective effects of autonomy in healthcare (18%) and household purchase (15%) on pregnancy loss were mediated through reduced experience of domestic violence during pregnancy. Beyond filling the gap in the literature, this study provides evidence and brings awareness (about the impact of the lack of women’s autonomy on adverse health outcomes) that is needed to urge policymakers and program implementers in targeting and improving women’s autonomy and health outcomes in Afghanistan. The findings of this study can also be translated into Dari and Pashto and be shared with the general public in Afghanistan. Interventions that may improve women’s autonomy and health outcomes in Afghanistan, such as establishing laws about women’s rights, granting access to education, awareness campaigns, microfinancing, and community-based distribution programs, could foster gender equity and improve maternal and child health – moving to more sustainable development, consistent with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 and 5.Item Perpetuating Conflict: Postcolonial Intervention in Afghanistan During the Cold War(2023) Dauphin, Edward George; Chung, Patrick; Woods, Colleen; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ArgumentThis thesis argues that during the postcolonial era, Cold War hegemons – The United States of America and the Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan’s modernization to ensure their methods of modernization – capitalism and communism – remained the only options for developing nations to modernize. While most believe that American and Soviet intervention into Afghanistan was the result of Cold War geopolitics, I argue that questions of statehood and nation-making were the central factors in superpower involvement in the country. Amid a resurgence of traditional Islamic values, Afghanistan sought to modernize outside of the realm of bi-polar developmental paths imposed by American nation-state capitalism and Soviet communism. Largely founded on Orientalist beliefs, the hegemons refused to recognize the legitimacy of a modern Afghan nation built on Islamism. The hegemons believed that without First World influence, Afghan “tribalism” and “Islamism” were too primitive to possess the capability of progressing towards a modern state, one which they defined using western-orthodox models. Statehood, according to American and Soviet concepts of high modernism posited that a developing nations’ path to modernity adhered to a linear model centered on a market-based economy. According to the hegemons, once the developing nation established a market-based economy, the developing nation would adapt to either a communist or capitalist modes. Method This research for this thesis was conducted using recently declassified primary source material from the CIA’s CREST database, the Wilson Center Online for recently declassified KGB documents, and select memoirs from key individuals. Secondary source material was used to frame the historiographical context of my argument – focusing on how many historians degrade the Afghan peoples’ own agency in their modernization. When necessary, secondary source material was also used in order to fill the gaps left by redacted primary source material. Key concepts used for framing both the USG and KGB’s reasons for intervention included postcolonial modernization, High Modernism and Orientalism, and Traditional Islam. Major FindingsMajor Findings included: 1) Though they “officially” supported self-determination, the Soviet Politburo and USG found new methods to control developing nations; 2) Despite their Orientalist beliefs and hesitancy to support the PDPA, the Soviet Politburo seized the initiative in Afghanistan by planting KGB agents in PDPA; 3) The Soviet Politburo legitimized the PDPA’s modernization as high modernism by claiming that Afghanistan's tribalism created a market system, and the civil war was merely the next step in revolution towards socialism. 4) Realizing they could no longer control the PDPA, the Politburo was compelled to commit military forces to support the PDPA and maintain their influence; 5) The USG refused to recognized Afghanistan's modernization according to their own concepts of high modernism; 6) The USG sought to undermine the PDPA, the Soviet Politburo’s support of the PDPA, and Islamism as a means to modernization. De-legitimizing all three would prove American capitalism as the only viable means to modernization; 7) With no intention of establishing a long-term solution, and with no desire to threaten détente, the USG relied on the CIA and clandestine operations to perpetuate the Afghan Civil War; and 8) By perpetuating the Civil War to drive Afghanistan to become a failed state, the USG gained credibility over the Soviet Politburo. ConclusionWestern definitions of statehood and nationmaking were the driving factors behind USG and KGB intervention in Afghanistan. Afghanistan did not merely serve as the next battleground for hegemonic proxy war, instead the Afghan people sought to pursue a third method of modernization, one which conflicted with western views of high modernism. Due to preconceived notions of Orientalism, the USG and Soviet Politburo were compelled to prevent an alternative method of nationmaking to maintain their bipolar control of the world.Item RISK AND COMMITMENT: CRITICAL DIMENSIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE TO COUNTER INSURGENCIES(2019) Glubzinski, Andrew Joseph; Swagel, Phillip L; Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Studies of development assistance in Afghanistan have found the impact of such assistance for reducing violence and countering insurgents to be weaker than in Iraq, not connected to improvements in Afghan perceptions of the quality of their governance, and inconsequential in the long term. While these previous results seem disappointing, existing frameworks offer only a limited perspective on why development assistance has not been more impactful in Afghanistan. My research analyzes development assistance in contexts that are more closely related to the reality of how insurgents fight within the geographic environment in Afghanistan compared to the existing literature, while also focusing on the longer-term effects of assistance rather than the short-term impacts previously examined. My framework identifies the concepts of risk and commitment as critical factors for countering insurgents. Risk refers to the risk tolerance for counterinsurgents, specifically the degree to which counterinsurgents emplace development assistance in areas that favor insurgent control. Commitment refers to the persistence of efforts aimed at development assistance, capturing the period of time over which counterinsurgents make investments in a local area. My empirical work coupled with qualitative interviews indicate that counterinsurgents must be willing to take risk and demonstrate commitment for development assistance to contribute to stabilizing a local area. An implication is that the weakness of development assistance for countering insurgents in Afghanistan reflects the typical situation in which development assistance has high commitment but low risk. Even when development assistance has taken risk, sporadic commitment might be constraining the effects. A hopeful implication of my research is that when development assistance involves sufficient risk and commitment, it has the potential to reduce violence in an adjoining area. In particular, I find that more risky rural development has a consistent association with less urban violence, while less risky urban development has a consistent association with more urban violence. However, the requirements of risk and commitment are steep in practice. It is possible for development assistance to reduce violence and improve stability, but the institutional headwinds are great and the costs—no matter the dimension in which they are measured—are substantial.Item SPARE PARTS: SMALL ARMS PROLIFERATION AND THE DILEMMA OF GOVERNANCE, AUTHORITY, AND FOREIGN MILITARY ASSISTANCE(2015) Merrell, Brian Christopher; Sumida, Jon T; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis examines the international state-directed arms trade in South Asia following WWII, and describes how attempts to limit the arms flow into the region were subverted by less constrained suppliers and by the superpowers themselves. Donor states distributed surplus items to less industrialized states, who eagerly accepted modern weapons that they could not produce domestically. Small arms are of special interest because of their very low cost; high production volume; low skill requirements for use; and the ease of distribution compared to major weapons systems. The South Asian states examined here pursued their own regional security agendas rather than conform to the Cold War paradigm of donor states. This demonstrated the failure of arms transfers as a diplomatic tool. It also resulted in a decline of civilian governance, the increased primacy of military authority, and the creation of conditions for enduring insecurity rather than security.Item Germany, Afghanistan, and the Process of Decision Making in German Foreign Policy: Constructing a Framework for Analysis(2011) Johnston, Karin Lynn; Quester, George; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Germany's emerging role as a supplier of security by contributing troops to out-of-area operations is a significant change in post-unification German foreign and security policy, and yet few studies have sought to explain how the process of decision making also has changed in order to accommodate the external and domestic factors that shape policy preferences and outcomes. The dissertation addresses these theoretical gaps in foreign policy analysis and in German foreign and security policy studies by examining the decision-making process in the case of Afghanistan from 2001-2008, emphasizing the importance of institutional structures that enable and constrain decision makers and then gathering the empirical evidence to construct a framework for analyzing German foreign policy decision making. The dynamics of decision making at the state level are examined by hypothesizing about the role of the chancellor in the decision-making process--whether there has been an expansion of chancellorial power relative to other actors--and about the role of coalition politics and the relative influence of the junior coalition partner in coalition governments. Results indicate that there are few signs that federal chancellors dominate or otherwise control decision-making outcomes, and that coalition politics remain a strong explanatory factor in the process that shapes the parameters of policy choices. The dissertation highlights the central role of the Bundestag, the German parliament. The German armed forces are, indeed, a "parliamentary army," and the decision-making process in the Afghanistan case shows how operational parameters can be affected by parliamentary involvement. The framework for analysis of German foreign policy decision making outlines the formal aspects while emphasizing the importance of the informal process of decision making that is characterized by political bargaining and consensus building among major actors, particularly between the government and the parliamentary party fractions. Thus, any examination of German out-of-area missions must take into account the co-determinative nature of decision making between the executive and legislative actors in shaping German foreign policy regarding its military engagements around the world.Item APPROACHING GENDER PARITY: WOMEN IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AT AFGHANISTAN'S KABUL UNIVERSITY(2010) Plane, Jandelyn Dawn; Selden, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study explores the representation of women in computer science at the tertiary level through data collected about undergraduate computer science education at Kabul University in Afghanistan. Previous studies have theorized reasons for underrepresentation of women in computer science, and while many of these reasons are indeed present in Afghanistan, they appear to hinder advancement to degree to a lesser extent. Women comprise at least 36% of each graduating class from KU's Computer Science Department; however, in 2007 women were 25% of the university population. In the US, women comprise over 50% of university populations while only graduating on average 25% women in undergraduate computer science programs. Representation of women in computer science in the US is 50% below the university rate, but at KU, it is 50% above the university rate. This mixed methods study of KU was conducted in the following three stages: setting up focus groups with women computer science students, distributing surveys to all students in the CS department, and conducting a series of 22 individual interviews with fourth year CS students. The analysis of the data collected and its comparison to literature on university/department retention in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics gender representation and on women's education in underdeveloped Islamic countries illuminates KU's uncharacteristic representation of women in its Computer Science Department. The retention of women in STEM through the education pipeline has several characteristics in Afghanistan that differ from countries often studied in available literature. Few Afghan students have computers in their home and few have training beyond secretarial applications before considering studying CS at university. University students in Afghanistan are selected based on placement exams and are then assigned to an area of study, and financially supported throughout their academic career, resulting in a low attrition rate from the program. Gender and STEM literature identifies parental encouragement, stereotypes and employment perceptions as influential characteristics. Afghan women in computer science received significant parental encouragement even from parents with no computer background. They do not seem to be influenced by any negative "geek" stereotypes, but they do perceive limitations when considering employment after graduation.Item Sheathing the Sword of Damocles: Assessing Al Qaeda and Devising a US Response(2007-12-18) McGrath, Kevin; Schreurs, Miranda; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Al Qaeda killed over 3,000 US citizens on September 11, 2001, and terrorism leapt to the fore of US strategic and political priorities. Yet, after nearly six year of concerted effort by the United States, the dominant power in the international system, Al Qaeda survives and is still acknowledged as a potent threat. This begs the question not just of why, but of what the United States can do to redress the situation. This dissertation seeks answers by examining the four key aspects of Al Qaeda that enable it function as a successful terrorist entity - strategy, organization, financing, and politics. These factors area analyzed relative to the dynamics of the phenomenon of terrorism in the US-Al Qaeda struggle. For each variable, Al Qaeda's perspective and efforts, as well as the perspective and efforts of the United States, are scrutinized. This dissertation assesses Al Qaeda is primarily a political threat, not a military one. Terrorists subvert legitimate political processes to achieve political ends. Al Qaeda challenges not only specific US political decisions, but also the very nature of the US political system, a classical liberal democracy, and the nature of the US-created post World War II international order. The character of the US political response is critical. As such, this dissertation concludes that US efforts to combat such a threat cannot be limited solely to a hard power approach. Such a component must be present in US strategy, for it alone directly degrades Al Qaeda's capacity for violence, the source of its power. The US approach must, however, include a greater emphasis on the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension. The political aspect both drives the conflict and frames its execution, thus shaping the possible outcomes in both the near and far term. Fortunately, as the leader of the international system, the United States is in a position to politically undercut Al Qaeda. The United States can do so by adhering to globally revered traditional US political values and foreign policy emphases - the rule of law, a participatory political system emphasizing the importance of international institutions, and democratic values, such as human rights - in not just the execution, but also the formulation of US policy. The potential impact is significant. Internally, manipulating the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension in accordance with traditional US values can weaken Al Qaeda's internal cohesion. Externally, the United States can narrow Al Qaeda's room for maneuver by depriving it of political support, thus strategically degrading Al Qaeda's operational capability. In the process, the United States will also stunt the terrorism process's subversive effects on the United States' political character. In short, addressing the US-Al Qaeda struggle's political dimension in a manner consistent with traditional US political values ensures US political integrity while also yielding national advantage.