Review of the Supervisor of Doctoral Dissertation Dissertant: Pamir Halimzai
Institution: Vysoká Škola ekonomická v Praze, Fakulta mezinárodních vztahů Supervisor: Doc. PhDr. Jan Eichler, CSc.
Pamir Halimzai: Post-2001 Afghanistan: A critical analysis of the US WoT and state-building discourse(s)
The thesis of Pamir Halimzai represents a profound analysis of the reconstruction of Afghanistan during the first two decades of the 21. Century.
His text covers three US presidents and their approaches to the reconstruction of Afghanistan: George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump
The thesis has been based on two clearly defined Research questions:
- RQ 1: How the US discourses on War on Terror and state-building in Afghanistan have took shape, became dominant over the past 19 years and what are their consequences?
- RQ 2: Also, in what ways both discourses are representative of wider depoliticization of the society and paved the way for the illiberal, oppressive politics of confinement and necropolitics?
Theoretical positions: a poststructuralist theoretical toolkit.
Methodological framework: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which is aimed to three above mentioned US presidents.
Key arguments of PH:
The author of this thesis managed to clearly define his two basic arguments:
- since the Afghanistan is in a state of war for almost two decades, therefore the US discourse on War on Terror and the discourse of state-building imply each other, examining them independent of each other breaks down the holistic context and mars plausible explanations and conclusions;
- A historical context of Afghanistan is imperative, therefore.
Added value:
1. The dissertation argues that a historical context of Afghanistan is imperative therefore, provides an alternative history of Afghanistan that arrives to the Taliban rule and reinterprets the Talibanization as a reverse state-building discourse, practice, and process. Pamir´s thesis offers a very precis definition of the concept of the Talibanization and explains its parallels with the Russification during the 1980. ´ The historical context as well as the Talibanization are explained at an excellent level, this analysis represents an incontestable contribution to the European, not only Czech research on this field.
2. Author showed that the US discourses could not tackle terrorism as a problem effectively and could not succeed in building robust security and democratic apparatuses in Afghanistan. The US discourses did not achieve the central problem-solving aim it envisaged. At the same time, author presented an interesting analysis of the discursive construction of the actions aimed against the Taliban and to the analysis of their results.
3. The dissertation works with an enormously interesting concept, it is the concept of Evilization. It shows how the Bush discourse evilized al Qaeda and the Taliban in religious, moral, and secular contexts. And his successor Barack Obama expanded those spaces and the domains of the politics of confinement which has been symbolised by his drone war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, and other countries indicates the expansion of the spaces of confinement.
4. The concept called “abiopolitics” as a euphemism for the killing of the political opponents in Afghanistan.
The work of PH after the Small Defense:
PH has positively, fairly, and honestly reacted to all recommendations of his opponents which have been presented in December 2020.
Conclusion:
The thesis of PH has four following merits which must be underlined:
1. PH presented a very interesting text which is based on a good in-depth analysis of the dramatic development of the Afghanistan during last two decades.
2. His text has four above – mentioned incontestable added values and represents a good inspiration for the study of the state building in Afghanistan in the following years.
3. His thesis fully satisfies the criteria for a Ph.D. dissertation at the VSE.
4. Today, the thesis of PH represents a text of reference for all researchers who will study the state-building in Afghanistan in the years to come.
Doc. PhDr. Jan Eichler, CSc.
06. 06. 2021
