Gender and counterinsurgency: the United States strategy at the war in Afghanistan

• Grant number: 18/03392-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2018
• End date: February 29, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Samuel Alves Soares
• Grantee: Gabriela Freitas dos Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the gender aspects of the US counterinsurgency strategy in the war in Afghanistan. These aspects are most prominently highlighted in the implementation of the Female Engagement Teams (FETs), ground support groups made up exclusively of US military women, who were responsible for reaching out to the civilian population, especially with Afghan women. On a larger scale, this initiative was part of the US strategic reorientation adopted in Afghanistan, in 2009, within the Obama administration. Through a population-centered counterinsurgency strategy, the goal was to 'win hearts and minds' and defeat the Afghan insurgency, especially the Taliban. Therefore, this research tries to answer which are the predominant aspects of gender in the counterinsurgency strategy adopted by the United States in the intervention in Afghanistan; and how this phenomenon, the gendering of counterinsurgency, is part of a reshaping of US interventionism. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SANTOS, Gabriela Freitas dos. Gender and counterinsurgency: the United States strategy at the war in Afghanistan. 2020. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Relações Internacionais. São Paulo São Paulo.