Warlords, the United States, and the state of anarchy in Afghanistan

As part of its “War on Terror”, the United States (US) provided immense sums of money and advanced equipment to Afghan warlords in order to defeat and dismantle the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Nearly two decades after the 2001 US-led intervention in Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban regime, the US continues supporting the warlords in various ways. As the intervention was also aimed at establishing a functioning state and reconstruction of the war-torn country, the US needed the support of local warlords to achieve its goals. However, over time, warlords and warlordism became a major challenge to the postTaliban state-building project and in many ways undermined the overall security and the state monopoly on violence. These warlords, who had been mostly expelled and defeated by the Taliban regime, returned under the aegis of the B52 bombers, recaptured parts of the country and reestablished their fiefdoms with US support and resources. They not only resist giving up the power and prestige they have accumulated over the past few years, but also hamper the effort to improve governance and enact necessary reforms in the country. In addition, many of them run their private militias and have been accused of serious human rights abuses as well as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, illegal mining and extortion in the areas under their control or influence. In many ways, they challenge the government authority and have become a major hurdle to the country’s emerging from lawlessness and anarchy. This paper explores the emergence and reemergence of warlords in Afghanistan as well as the evolution of chaos and anarchy in the country, especially after the US-led intervention of late 2001. It also analyzes the impact of the post-9/11 US support to Afghan warlords and its negative consequences for the overall stability and the US-led state-building process in Afghanistan.

Visual Framing of Political Candidates: Case Study of the 2014 Turkish Presidential Election Campaign

In the context of political communication, political campaigns are the periods when political bias in the news media comes to light. This is reflected in news photos and other visual contents as well as newspaper texts. Visual framing, a newer area in framing theory and research, helps us understand how media frames visual images of political candidates. This paper analyzes the photographs of the presidential candidates in the 2014 Turkish presidential election campaign by using the visual framing analysis method. The data for this study comprises photographs from ten daily national newspapers belonging to different media groups representative of the Turkish press. The results reveal the intensity of visual framing bias related to political bias and polarization in the Turkish press.

Quality of Life and Women’s Descriptive Representation: Female Emergence and Success in the 2018 Czech Local Elections

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of quality of life, together with other factors, on female candidates̕ willingness to run for office and women’s descriptive representation in the 2018 Czech local elections. We found that the effect of some variables was different in the case of women’s emergence and success. While the share of female candidates was higher in larger cities with lower quality of life and less nationalized local party systems, women were much more successful in smaller cities with lower quality of life, less nationalized local party systems and a more strongly gendered context in the sense of previous female representation, both in city councils and on corporate boards of firms owned by the city. While the positive effect of size on women’s emergence can be explained with the larger city’s context which generates more access points for emergence of women candidates, the negative effect of size on women’s success was due to the desirability of office effect. Furthermore, the very small effect of previous female representation on the share of female candidates can be explained by the existence of an incumbency effect, which may also underlie the different influence of the representation of women in municipally-owned firms’ management. Finally, the negative effect of quality of life (at the level of both candidacy and representation) can also be linked with the desirability hypothesis. The drive to win representation and make decisions about the life of the community can be expected to be much stronger in municipalities with higher quality of life.

Tábor v Letech jako „neexistující pseudokoncentrák“: analýza proměny letských narativů

Interpreting and staging the past is an integral part of politics in its different forms. Selected historical events that are attached greater importance have often been contested politically. In the last two decades or so, clashes over the past have escalated in most consolidated democracies and have become more closely linked with other dimensions of political conflict. In the already consolidated Czech democracy, disputes have reopened over both the Communist regime and a much older past, with history fully entering the political agenda. These conflicts have been centred on both the historical subjects and fundamental points of collective memory, and on locations related to that memory and history. In a specific time and space, those places represent a certain tale, a certain interpretation of historical events, and at the same time allow for the development of other tales, often updated and in some cases politically contested. The forms and nature of the physical places of collective memory may vary. Firstly, these may be places “where bodies lie or have lain” – mass graves, destroyed communities or other places of collective suffering. This paper tackles this issue and analyses the narratives constructed by leading Czech politicians of the WWII Roma concentration camp in Lety. It presents the main arguments of the competing narratives and their changes throughout the post-Communist period.

Political Culture and Nigeria’s Democratic Experience in the Fourth Republic

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian rule in 1999, the quest to sustain and mainstream democratic practice and governance has continued to play a vital role in the country’s political life. While electoral democracy is universally acclaimed as the quintessence of good governance, Nigeria’s democratic experience has been apparently contradictory. This paper explores some contemporary issues of democracy and governance in Nigeria from the standpoint of the country’s prevailing undemocratic political culture. The descriptive qualitative analysis focuses on salient aspects of democratic culture. The paper posits that Nigerian’s democratic prospects have been undermined by its persistent undemocratic political culture. With reference to the country’s Fourth Republic, the paper highlights the critical implications of such an anomalous culture for Nigeria’s democratic aspirations and governance experience, noting that radical civic re-orientation is a desideratum for any change to the status quo.

Geopolitics of Central Asia: Between the Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon

The countries of Central Asia are driven by economic development. However, they are lacking financial resources, and a gap in cooperation among the countries is making the development stage even more problematic. The important geostrategic location is attracting the attention of global superpowers. Russia has been maintaining close ties with the countries since the disintegration of the USSR. Nevertheless, does Russia have enough possibilities and tools to satisfy these states? This paper inquires why the region represents a crucial point from the perspectives of global superpowers. In doing so, the study describes the most likely future of the region and of global actors’ involvement. It also outlines who is currently more dominant in the area, or possibly how the influence is divided between the territories. Lastly, the paper shows how the balance of power has changed with China becoming the main actor, or at least one with the highest potential. The process-tracing method and the geopolitical concept are anchoring the paper and shaping the course of the argument.