美国的“阿富汗困境”：问题与前景

2011年5月2日,本·拉登在巴基斯坦的阿伯塔巴德被美军越境击毙,尽管美国为卡尔扎伊提供了一套完善的重建计划和大量的资金支持,但自身孱弱的阿富汗政府要解决长期存在的贫穷、腐败、贩毒、军阀与部落割据等“传统”问题决非一朝一夕之功。在脱离“阿富汗泥潭”的同时,美国将会在阿富汗长期保持支配地位,继续巩固这个“来之不易”的欧亚战略支点。     

中国援助阿富汗和平重建举措探析

9．11事件以来,美国主导阿富汗和平重建进程,积极实施对阿“新战略”。地区国家对阿富汗和平重建十分关注并大力开展相关的外事工作,尤其突出了对阿富汗的援助。中国援助阿富汗和平重建的举措应当从资金管理、组织机构、援助项目等多方面增强阿富汗自主发展能力,提高援助的针对性和实效性。当前阿富汗局势正处于历史性的转折阶段,中国将同国际社会一道继续支持阿富汗人民克服新挑战。     

Disaster preparedness among households in the Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan: A baseline evaluation study

This paper presents a critical analysis of the level of disaster preparedness among households in the Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. Based on an analysis of baseline data collected as part of a project aimed at strengthening the disaster response in this province, this paper emphasizes the complexities of disaster preparedness among Afghan households, including a critical gap in knowledge, a lack of resources, and limitations in existing community responses to disasters. The findings reveal that less economic security, less knowledge of emergencies and emergency plans, being a female head of household, and having prior disaster experience tended to predict lower levels of preparedness among households. Disaster‐preparedness interventions targeted at improving the knowledge of hazards and hazard plans, as well as enhancing the livelihood and income security of affected households, could minimize the negative impact of disasters. Because most households relied on social networks and indigenous preparedness measures, future research should examine the nature of such measures and their effectiveness in mitigating the impact of disasters on this population.     

美国与阿富汗战略关系的演变

阿富汗虽然是一个落后的内陆山国,但一直是大国角逐的重要场所。冷战初期,苏联和美国以提供经济援助的方式在阿富汗展开争夺;苏联入侵阿富汗之后,美国支持阿富汗抵抗力量,双方在阿富汗进行了“代理人”战争。冷战结束后,随着中亚五国的独立,阿富汗地缘政治地位进一步上升。“9.11”事件后,美国发动了阿富汗反恐战争。此后,美国主导了阿富汗的重建,并乘机实现了在中亚地区的军事存在。阿富汗已经成为美国全球战略的不可或缺的棋子。     

A mixed methods inquiry of caregivers of U.S. veterans with sustained “invisible” injuries from Iraq/Afghanistan

ABSTRACT

An exploratory study of caregiver burden associated with family caregivers enrolled in the VA Caregiver Support Program who assist veterans with serious invisible injuries sustained post September 11, 2001. A mixed methods analysis was completed with a retroactive chart review of already collected data (172 participants) in addition to a phenomenological query of 16 participants. Results: T-tests resulted in a significantly higher caregiver burden score with caregivers who had children in the home (M = 6.84; SD = 3.21) versus those who did not (M = 5.57; SD = 2.75), t (160) = ?2.36, p = .02. An ANOVA across caregiver role (parent, spouse, significant other and other) and the Zarit Burden Inventory (ZBI) resulted in a significant difference (F [3, 159] = 1.59, p < .01, with spousal caregivers having a significantly higher ZBI score (M = 6.83; SD = 3.10) than parental caregivers (M = 4.46; SD = 2.70). The phenomenological research resulted in 22 major themes (family adjustment, subjective demands, coping techniques, social support, VA/DOD, self-care, intimacy, role strain, financial resources, life course, obligation, rewards, isolation/loss of self, reciprocity, stigma, community resources, spiritual support, tools, hope, uncertainty, guilt, leash syndrome) which supported quantitative findings. Conclusions: Caregivers and their families had a difficult time adjusting post injury. Caregivers relied heavily on their own coping mechanisms to adapt to their new role and did not find social support to be helpful with caregiving. Spousal caregivers and caregivers with children in the home had more difficulty adjusting when compared with parental caregivers.     

Not without my sister(s)

Less than two months after 11 September 2001, and a few weeks after the beginning of the US bombing campaign in Afghanistan, President George W. Bush made an urgent plea to see Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar. Not only did the President want to see Kandahar; he encouraged US citizens to view it as well. This article offers two readings of Kandahar – the first suggestive of what its filmmaker Makhmalbaf saw in Afghanistan and the second suggestive of what Bush saw (or hoped to see) in Makhmalbaf's Afghanistan. In particular, this article focuses on how the Bush administration – against the intentions of Kandahar's director and star – propelled occidental subjects to ‘lift the veil’ on Afghanistan and on Afghan women by viewing Kandahar as if it positioned the feminine as a needy and willing object of US rescue. It was in part by laying this particular claim to the separated sisters of Kandahar that the Bush administration constructed a humanitarian US ‘we’ as among the foundations of its ‘moral grammar of war’ in the war on terror.     

‘Khalas! Literature is the resistance against politics,and this is the politics of literature’: an interview with Atiq Rahimi

ABSTRACT

Atiq Rahimi is a director, photographer and translingual author who has published in Dari (Persian) and in French since 1999. As an outspoken author, Rahimi did not refrain from narrating loss, trauma and fundamentalism already in the 1990s. For his first publication in French, Syngué Sabour. Pierre de patience, he was awarded the highest literary price in France, the Prix Goncourt. With his recently published novel Les Porteurs d’eau, set in Afghanistan and Europe, Rahimi also explores challenges of the global Afghanistani diaspora. Inspired by his personal experiences of travelling from Kabul to Paris, Rahimi explores, with his Kafkaesque narratives, themes of loss, suffering and survival, all located in a war-torn country. In this interview, conducted in Paris, conversing in Persian and French, Rahimi talks about his personal journey and discusses cultural as well as literary theories. He mentions literature without borders, considers the power of literature as a means of taking a stand against political reality, learning French as a teenager and depicting strong female characters. Additionally, Rahimi explains to what extent Persian linguistics allowed him to depict the absurdity of living exile in his latest novel and ends the interview explaining the rationale behind the idea of authors without borders.     

The lifestyles and changes in culture of Afghan Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan

This paper traces changes in the culture of the Kyrgyz ethnic group in the era after the break-up of the USSR. In order to describe correctly changes in their lives, a comparison was used from a wide range of areas where Kyrgyz live. As a basis, the way of life of Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan is used. Kyrgyz here represent the majority, but before the break-up they did not emphasize their ethnicity significantly. After the break up of the USSR and the formation of the national state, they began to look for new, or new-and-old, roots and to strengthen their nationalistic tendencies. Looking for new roots included the creation of historical constructs and emphasizing many specifics of lifestyles of ‘real Kyrgyz’. But Kyrgyz live in many other states as a minority – especially in China, Tajikistan and Afghanistan. These Kyrgyz, however, often designate different elements of their culture as a basis of their ethnic group compared to Kyrgyz from Kyrgyzstan. The paper first tries to identify important elements of Kyrgyz culture in the era of the break-up of the USSR based on statements of respondents from Kyrgyzstan and to find out if these elements are also important as an identification feature for Kyrgyz in other states. Field research has been conducted in China and Tajikistan, but in this work, results from Afghanistan in particular are presented. The paper also tries to give an answer as to the influence of the formation of the national state (Kyrgyzstan) on members of ethnic groups living in other states as a minority (Kyrgyz in Afghanistan) and how this changed their ethnic identity.     

反恐战争前后的阿富汗周边地缘政治形势

“9· 11”事件之后 ,阿富汗周边地缘政治形势发生了重大变化。本文从历史的角度探讨了这种变化的原因和特点 ,对美国在中亚和阿富汗的军事存在进行了评论     

阿富汗毒品问题的利益角色分析

毒品问题对阿富汗战后重建及其国计民生的负面影响是长期的、根深蒂固的和难以消除的。阿富汗地方军阀和毒枭乃至政府、地方官员和警察在毒品问题中扮演着主要角色;美国在毒品产业中的利益以及侧重反恐的总体战略导致其在阿富汗毒品问题中起着决定性的推动作用;塔利班在毒品活动中获益相对有限;恐怖主义与毒品问题之间的联系并非传统认为的那么密切。