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

Author(s)

Gabriela Freitas dos Santos

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo. 2020-10-26.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Relações Internacionais. São Paulo
• Defense date: 2020-09-10
• Advisor: Samuel Alves Soares

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the gender aspects of the United States counterinsurgency strategy during the intervention 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 Afghan women. On a broader perspective, this initiative was part of the US strategic reorientation 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 main gender aspects in the US counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan; and how this gendered dimension is deployed to reframe the intervention as humanitarian and benevolent. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/03392-0 - Gender and counterinsurgency: the United States strategy at the war in Afghanistan
• Grantee: Gabriela Freitas dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master