My Daily Life

 I will describe a day of my life, specifically on a Thursday or Friday during the school year. Right now I am on summer vacation, so my day is much less eventful and harder to write about. The purpose of this blog will be to discuss the daily restraints I have in my life from all levels of society and some ways that I overcome or cope with these restraints. This is only an example of my day two days a week on Thursday and Friday during the school year. 

I wake up at 6am and lift weights, drink coffee, read a book, and take a shower. By 7am, I drive from my apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland to the school I work at in Springfield, Virginia, which is roughly a 40 to 50 minute drive. My drive is all on the highway I-495 and the design of I-495 heavily constrains my movements. The way the road was built and the fact that so many people use the road causes bottlenecks which increases traffic and often my commute time. This leads to me having to wake up earlier and leave my apartment earlier. I exercise agency during this often brutal commute by listening to history podcasts while I am driving. I love listening to historical podcasts and it brings me happiness, taking an otherwise very frustrating commute into something I often look forward to.  

I then proceed to work at the school from 9am to 3:15pm teaching history at the school. By day at the school, I follow a certain amount of societal norms such as a set class schedule and a set curriculum. I can’t go into as much detail as I would like about certain subjects in history because of these societal norms. Working at a private school, I do have much more freedom in a curriculum but the time restraints of the class period are still restraining. Obviously, norms such as class time and a set curriculum are the norm in all school systems all over the world. 

At 3:15 the school gets out, I proceed to drive to Falls Church, Virginia to the restaurant where I work, which is about 20 minutes from the school. My shift does not start at the restaurant until 4:30, so I normally have about an hour to relax. During this period, I do a number of things depending on the day in order to exercise agency and have some control over my life. First, I always face time with my girlfriend, then I either sleep in my car, listen to my podcasts in the car, go see my father a few blocks away, or go to church for a few minutes before work. All of these activities help me to relax and recharge before my shift at the restaurant. 

I then proceed to work at the restaurant from 4:30 until about 10:30, this time is very hectic and random, as the restaurant industry always is. Obviously, the number of people who go or don’t go to a restaurant heavily affects how the evening is going to be. For example, if the weather is bad, it will be a slow night, for the patio will not be open. On the other hand, if the weather is nice, many people will come to the restaurant. The unpredictability is a restraint on how my night will be and one that I have absolutely no control over. The general economic situation in Northern Virginia is also a major factor, the restaurant is quite expensive, and located in the wealthy city of Falls Church. The economic resources of our clientele lead many of them to be able to afford to eat out at a restaurant, therefore keeping me employed and making me money. At 10:30, I leave the restaurant and drive back to my apartment in Silver Spring. This drive takes about 35 minutes, though usually without the traffic that plagues my morning drive. Similar to my morning experience, I listen to my history podcasts which helps me stay awake and alert when I am very tired on my commute home. 

Bogota, Columbia: Transportation Climate Change.

 

The purpose of this blog is to discuss the actions of Bogota, Colombia to fight climate change and how transportation climate change affects Colombia nationwide. In Bogota, the main problem causing climate change is transportation pollution which accounts for about half of the pollution in the city.  The city’s environment secretary Carolina Uruttuia states that “ Fossil fuel powered cars, buses, and cargo trucks - some belching black clouds of smoke - emit a big share of 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering Bogota’s environment daily “ (Moloney). 

In response, there have been a number of actions to combat transportation based in Colombia’s Capital. Notably, the city government has committed to expanding bike lanes, walking paths, electric bus use, and adding more electric cable cars all across the city. Many of these actions are designed to help the city's poorer residents along with members of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities. The city has a number of goals in order to combat climate change for the long term, stating the aim to cut “greenhouse gas emissions by at least 15% by 2024, and by half by 2030, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050” (Moloney). This is an lofty goal, though with COVID travel restrictions in place Bogota will likely reach their 2024 goal. Bogota also pledged along with 100 other cities to combat climate change in an agreement called the C40 Cities network (Moloney). 

Bogota’s use of electric buses is already producing positive results for the city. There are about 350 electric buses that are used by about 180,000 people a day. The city’s  plan is to introduce 1,485 electric buses in Bogota by next year. The efforts have been described as taking 42,000 cars off the street a year and if the numbers are met Bogota will have the largest fleet of electric cars of any city outside of China. The use of bicycles has also been encouraged, especially with younger generations of Columbians across all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. 

This becomes a much larger problem when you look at Colombia nationwide. Transportation in Colombia is a major issue as the country has no national train system and virtually all goods and foods have to be delivered by trucks. The nation’s three largest cities Bogota, Medellin and Cali are all completely landlocked, with over 13 million people living in these three cities alone, the problem shows little signs of being solved. There have been numerous attempts to get trucking companies and busing companies to engage in more environmentally friendly practices but these attempts have met little success and resulted in strikes and street protests. In the past the city government of Bogota has backed down, though now the city has been taking measures such as buying the polluting buses directly from the companies. Hopefully the positive steps taken by Bogota can spread nationwide. 

Work Cited: 

Moloney, Anastasia. “Bogota Crowdsources a Green Transport Future to Cut Emissions.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 26 May 2021, www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-climate-change-transportatio/bogota-crowdsources-a-green-transport-future-to-cut-emissions-idUSKCN2D7203.  

Tunisia & France Election Comparison.

 In this blog I am going to be comparing and contrasting the 2019 presidential election in Tunisia with the 2017 presidential election in France. Tunisia is the periphery country and also the country that I am focusing on in my research paper. France, the former colonizer of Tunisia, is the core nation that I am going to be talking about. Both Tunisia and France are liberal democrat states, the text states that the characteristics for liberal democracies are “ First, pluralistic elections, in which there is competition between two or more parties to form the government, are held regularly. Second, all adult citizens are entitled to vote in these elections. Third, there are political freedoms that allow all citizens to associate freely and express their political opinions” (Flint). Both nations are democracies, though Tunisia is a relatively new one, becoming a democracy after the Jasmine Revolution during the 2011 Arab Spring. This makes this comparison not a typical comparison between core and periphery nations because Tunisian is so far a functioning democracy, which was proved with the 2019 election.  

In September 2019, Tunisia had its second election in the history of its young democracy. The elections were supposed to be held in November, but in July 2019 the first democratically elected president Beji Caid Essebsi died and the election had to be pushed up. There were nine candidates who ran for the election, the two most successful candidates were Kais Saied, the winner of the election, and Nabil Karroui of the Heart of Tunisia party (Yerkes). Saied is a former college professor and populist conservative candidate, who didn’t run a campaign and is not affiliated with any major political party. Saied was especially popular with young people and won the election in a landslide, capturing 72% of the vote. He was especially popular in urban areas;these population centers aided his victories. In regards to foreign policy, Saied is notably anti-Israel.  Second place went to Nabil Karroui, the owner of a popular television station. Karoui was arrested on charges of money laundering shortly after announcing his candidacy, despite this he still won 27% of the vote. Karoui states that he thinks that there was foul play in the election; he was released only 4 days before the final voting (BBC News). Other notable candidates include Youseff Chahed of the Tahya Tounes party, and Abdelfattah Mourou of the Ennahda party (Yerkes).

 Another interesting development in this election is the candidacy of Mounir Baatour, who was the first ever openly gay presidential canidate for a Muslim country. Unfortunately, his candidacy was not recognized and was forced to flee to France as a political refugee in 2020. This remains the major black mark on Tunisia’s democracy. Tunisia is a parliamentary democracy with religious freedom and women's rights, though LGBTQ rights are dismal in Tunisia. LGBTQ people are heavily persecuted in the country, and there's something very un-democratic about not allowing a man to run for office due to his sexual orientation. I believe this shows some growing pains in Tunisian’s new democracy and sets them apart from older democracies such as France, where these types of issues haven’t happened in years. 

The next election that I am going to be focusing on is the French presidential election of 2017. The two main candidates in the election were Emmanuel Macron, a centrist and Marine Le Pen, a far right politician. Emmanuel Macron won the election with a Pro-European Union policy, many people saw him as being a better option of the two candidates, he didn’t have widespread popularity in the country but despite this won 66.1 percent of the vote (Aisch). His centrist political beliefs helped him to win the votes of people who were not sure on who to vote for.  His opponent Marine Le Pen is anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, anti-EU, and especially popular in areas with high unemployment (specifically the Northeast and the Southeast). Despite her loss, Her gaining of 33.9% of the vote in the election shows the rise and popularity of the far right in France (Aisch). 

Overall, the elections of both nations were democrat in nature, though the popularity of the winner in the election is quite different. In the Tunisian election, the populist candidate Kais Saied was especially popular with young people and he won a landslide victory over his opponents. He also did very little campaigning which is quite rare in core countries where candidates often campaign heavily. On the other hand, Macron does not enjoy large levels of popularity. Macron was seen as the best of two options for most voters, who were either too far to the left, or not far enough to the right to vote for Le Pen. Macron is also a centrist who leans to the left, while Saied is a far conservative more like Le Pen. Also the accusations made by Nabil Kouri in the Tunisian election and the anti-LGBTQ action of banning Baatour show the growing pains of democracy in Tunisia. 

Map 1: Tunisia 2019 Election: (Red is Karoui, Green is Saied). 

Map 2: France 2017: (Blue is Macron, Yellow is Le Pen). 

Work Cited: 

Yerkes, Sarah. “Tunisia's Elections, Explained: The World's Youngest Democracy Votes.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, carnegieendowment.org/publications/interactive/tunisian-elections-2019#.  

“Tunisia Election: Kais Saied to Become President.” BBC News, BBC, 14 Oct. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50032460.   

Flint, Colin, and Peter James Taylor. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality. Routledge, 2018   

Aisch, Gregor, et al. “How France Voted.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 May 2017, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/07/world/europe/france-election-results-maps.html. 

US vs. EU: Migration & Immigration Compare and Contrast.

 The purpose of this blog is to compare the migration patterns (both domestic and internationally) and the immigration issues between the United States and the European Union. I will be focusing on both domestic migration in the EU and the United States and also immigration from abroad in the respective areas. Lastly, I will be focusing on the immigration issues of the EU and the United States and how they differ because of their historical experiences. This will be discussed further in the blog but it is my personal belief that immigration is a part of American culture and not a part of European culture and that this greatly affects attitudes towards immigrants. 

In regards to domestic migration, Americans are tending to leave the East Coast and California and instead are moving to the South and other Western states. The main reasons for people leaving these areas are high taxes, high cost of living, crime, and job opportunities. The pandemic is also accelerating this migration because now people can work from home. There is little point in someone paying a lot of money for homes in California and New York when they could live cheaper in other states. The state with the most people moving in is Florida with a lot of this migration coming from Northeastern states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Another state receiving a lot of migration from these areas as well as the Midwest is the state of Texas. Another domestic migration pattern in the United States is people are leaving California. Californians are leaving the state to move to states such as Texas, Oregon, and Nevada (Kerns).  

In Europe, domestic inter-EU migration tends to manifest itself with people from Eastern and Central Europe migrating to more economically prosperous Western and Southern Europe. For example, large numbers of Polish people migrated to the UK, while lots of Romanians migrated to Italy. These people are migrating from poorer parts of the EU to richer parts of the EU for job opportunities and a higher standard of living (Migration Data Europe). 

Domestic migration in the EU is similar to the U.S. because people are moving for job opportunities and improving their living conditions. A major difference between migration in these areas is migration in the EU is technically going to a whole new country. Even though the EU has free movement to other EU states, migrants are still moving to countries with a different language and culture from theirs. This is a fact that could lead to more xenophobia than inter-American migration, where all domestic migrants are Americans. Another major difference is that many Americans are moving because the states they live in are too expensive, this differs from the EU where migration tends to be to more expensive metropolitan cities such as Paris or Rome. 

In the United States, immigration from abroad is mostly coming from Mexico, El Salvador, the Philippines, China, and India. All of this being said, about 50% of immigrants to the United States come from Mexico, Central America, and South America (Budiman). In the first generation, these immigrants are often working jobs in the service industry, construction, and living amongst an established community here in the United States. Immigrants from these countries often travel via roads to get to this country, this makes it a cheaper but a far more dangerous option for immigration. A lot of immigrants from Mexico and Central America are fleeing violence and economic instability.  Immigration from China and India is also very common but immigrants from these areas tend to have more white collar jobs such as IT and Finance upon immigrating to the United States. This is because they have to fly to this country to get here so it is more common that people who have more money are able to immigrate to this country. All of this being said these are generalizations that have exceptions from both sides. It would be an untrue and offensive generalization to say all Indian & Chinese migrants are well off and all Migrants from Latin America aren’t. This is not at all what I mean and am just trying to capture general trends, which is kind of hard to do. 

Immigration into the European Union manifests itself quite differently, immigrants to the EU are often fleeing wars, political unrest and extreme poverty in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. This journey often involves migrants taking dangerous journeys across the Mediteranean in order to reach Southern European nations such as Spain, Greece, and Italy (USA for UNHCR). These journeys are made out of desperation and often fraught with danger for the migrants. The goal of these migrants is often not to stay in Southern Europe but to move to Northern and Western European nations such as Germany (Migration Data Portal). 

In both the United States and the EU, anti-immigrant sentiment is a major concern. In the European Union, Far Right politicians such as Italy’s Matteo Salvini and France’s Marine Le Pen spew anti-immigrant messages and hatred. Their concerns stem from a perceived possibility of a loss of cultural identity and the view that their economies are not able to handle the influx of migrants. They also view the migrants culture and Islam as being incompatible with the culture of their nations (World Politics Review). It is my belief that this stems from the fact that Europe is not a place that is used to immigration. Historically speaking, Europe is a place where people immigrate from, not people immigrate too. Europe has never had immigration on this massive scale and this leads to these xenephobic attitudes and the idea that they could somehow lose their culture. All of this being said, I am not a European, though I can see how these xenephobic attitudes can arise in a continent where immigration isn’t a part of their culture. 

 In the United States, we are a nation of immigrants, that is pretty much the entire point of the country. That’s why despite anti-immigration beliefs on the Far Right, we are able to be more accepting of immigrants that come to this country. All of this being said, we still see a major anti-immigration movement that was led by Donald Trump. I believe because of our history as a nation of immigrants, the xenophobia in America is even more shameful. In this country, we have the infrastructure and the need for immigrants but still anti-immigration movements arise. We are a nation of immigrants and immigration is a part of our culture, that’s what makes xenophobia even more shameful. 

Maps: 

Map 1: European Migration Map: 

Map 2: American Immigration Map: 

Map 3: American Domestic Migration Map 

Work Cited: 

Kerns, Kristen. “Moves to and From the South and West Dominate Recent Migration Flows.” The United States Census Bureau, 23 May 2019, www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/04/moves-from-south-west-dominate-recent-migration-flows.html. 

“Refugee Crisis in Europe: Aid, Statistics and News: USA for UNHCR.” Refugee Crisis in Europe: Aid, Statistics and News | USA for UNHCR, www.unrefugees.org/emergencies/refugee-crisis-in-europe/. 

“Migration Data in Europe.” Migration Data Portal, migrationdataportal.org/regional-data-overview/europe. 

Budiman, Abby. “Key Findings about U.S. Immigrants.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 22 Sept. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/.  

“Global Migration Is Not Abating. Neither Is the Backlash Against It.” World Politics Review, www.worldpoliticsreview.com/insights/28008/to-ease-the-migration-crisis-europe-and-the-world-must-address-root-causes#:~:text=The%20 European%20 Migrant%20Crisis%20of,immigrants%20to%20fuel%20their%20rise. 

Week 4 Blog: Tunisia's Changing Boundaries.

 The purpose of my blog today will be to show how Tunisia’s borders have changed throughout history. To understand Tunisia’s changing boundaries, Tunisia’s history and the fact that the land has been part of numerous empire’s is crucial. 

The history of Tunisia really begins in 1100 BC with the powerful city state of Carthage. The state of Carthage was located just a few miles from the modern capital of Tunis and originally corresponds roughly to the modern borders of Tunisia. The Carthaginian Empire borders expanded, conquering much of Western Sicily, Sardinia and Southern Spain. By 146 BC, the Carthaginians were conquered by the Romans and the land became part of the vast Roman Empire. The Romans established the Province of Africa which roughly corresponds to Modern Tunisia (Map 1). These Ancient Empires were crucial in manufacturing a separate identity and culture for the country of Tunisia. Even though Tunisia was part of much larger empires with vast borders, the importance and separation of the Province of Africa and Carthage’s predominance in the Carthaginian Empire helped to develop a separate identity (Map 2). 

After 439 AD, the Roman Empire fell and the area was taken over by a Germanic group called the Vandals. The borders of the Vandal Kingdom actually roughly corresponded to the Carthaginian Empire with the exception of Southern Spain (Map 3). The Vandal Kingdom was short-lived and the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) took back the area. The Byzantine boundaries were much diminished from the days of the Roman Empire but still included much of the old Roman Empire, especially the Balkans, the Middle East, and Southern Italy. Both the Vandals and the Byzantines heavily taxed and in the case of the Vandals religiously oppressed the locals and this made them deeply unpopular which helped to strengthen a local identity and solidarity against the occupiers. 

By the year 698 AD, Tunisia was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate and the majority of the inhabitants were converted to Islam. The borders of the Umayyad Caliphate stretched from modern Spain to Iran and was one of the largest empires ever in history (Map 4). The next few hundred years mostly involved modern Tunisia being in the same caliphate as many other places in North Africa. For example, from 1160 to 1229, Tunisia was part of the Almohad Caliphate (based in Morocco) which also included Southern Spain, Morocco and Algeria. Starting in 1229, independence was proclaimed from the Almohads and the Hafsid Dynasty ruled modern Tunisia and Libya for over 300 years (Map 5). This period is significant because it shows when Islam became the major religion of Tunisia and the fluditiy of borders between Tunisia and the neighboring Muslim powers. This period in the region shows North Africa coming into its own and being shaped into an Islamic society. 

From 1554 to 1881, Tunisia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire, despite its large size controlling much of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans, gave the Tunisians a large amount of self rule (Map 6). From 1881 to 1956, Tunisia was part of the French Colonial Empire, like Ottoman Rule, the Tunisians were allowed a great deal of autonomy. During these two periods, Tunisia was ruled by semi-independent rulers called Beys (Map 7). In 1956, Tunisia proclaimed independence from France and it’s modern boundaries have not changed since then.

Overall, despite the fact that Tunisia’s boundaries have changed through history, much of the time the country was a part of major empires that gave them a great deal of autonomy. Even when Tunisia was a part of more repressive empires such as the Byzantines and the Vandals, the Tunisians hated them and that helped bring citizens closer together. The nation’s boundaries have changed frequently throughout history but through relative autonomy during times of empire, and the fact that it was the occasional seat of political power (Carthigianans & Hafsids) all contributed to the creation of a separate Tunisian identity. 

Maps: 

Map 1: Carthaginian Empire

Map 2: The Roman Empire 

Map 3: Vandal Kingdom 

Map 4: Umayyad Caliphate 

Map 5: Hafsid Kingdom

Map 6: 

Map 7: The French Colonial Empire. 

Work Cited: 

World Trade Press. "Tunisia: Historical Timeline." AtoZ World Culture, 27 June 2021, https://www-atozworldculture-com.eznvcc.vccs.edu/tunisia/historical-timeline.html.

U.S. Military Bases in Italy.

 The focus of my blog today is going to the U.S. Military bases in Italy. The American military has a total of six active military bases in Italy. Four of these bases are Navy, two are Army, and one is Air Force. One of these bases is on the Italian island of Sicily and the American military formerly had a base on the Italian island of Sardinia which is closed. 

The point of this blog will be to show how American military bases in Italy were a product of the post WWII world and also a product of the Cold War. These bases were all built from 1951-1967 during the height of the Cold War to counteract Soviet influence in the Mediterranean. Post- WWII there was a growing communist party in Italy that had a chance to take power in the country. Due to the dismal economic conditions post WWII there was a chance that this communist party could win in the election of 1948. The CIA influenced the election and made sure the communists didn’t take power in Italy. After World War II, the United States was the only major power that was not completely devastated by war, and established the Marshall Plan in order to provide funds to rebuild Europe. It was in American interest to rebuild European nations like Italy and get the nations under American capitalist economic influence. On the other hand, It was in Soviet interest to keep European nations poor in order to create such an awful situation that they would fall to communism and Soviet influence. If the communists had won the election in Italy, the United States said they would pull all Marshall Plan funds out of the country. 

During the Cold War, the United States Military built these bases in Italy to prevent Soviet expansion and influence in the region. Italy was seen as a good halfway point between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. was determined to utilize these bases as a way to solidify American influence in the region. These actions can be seen as cultural and economic imperialism, though in my opinion a better alternative to Soviet influence in the region which would have resulted in economic disaster for the Italians. 

The Navy has a total of three bases in Italy. The NSA Gaeta Navy Base and the NSA Naples Navy Base are located close to each other in Southern Italy. The Naples base is especially large, housing 10,000 servicemen and a military college on base. These bases act as stopovers for U.S. military personnel during the Vietnam War, Korean War, Iraq War, and the War in Afghanistan. 

The Navy also has a military base on the Italian island of Sicily called the NAS Sigonella Navy Base. This base was established in 1959, the U.S. was trying to gain economic influence in Malta and had established a base there. Basically the U.S. government ran out of room on the Malta base and so opened a new base in Sicily to store access equipment. A couple of major events have occurred on this base, the 2011 invasion of Libya that resulted in Gaddafi’s death was launched from Sigonella, and a flood occurred in 2005 resulting in the evacuation of 400 personnel. The United States Navy used to have a military base on the Italian island of Sardinia. This base housed a nuclear submarine in 2003 and instantly became deeply unpopular with the locals. Local Sardinian politicians and citizens expressed concerns of the environmental damage of housing nuclear weapons and negative impacts on tourism (Wingfield). The base closed in 2005 after negotiations between Italy and the United States. 

The United States Army has two bases in Northern Italy. Established in 1951, the Camp Darby base in Tirreana, Italy is the oldest U.S. base in Italy. Post WWII Italy and the U.S. signed a treaty allowing the Americans access to a sliver of land near Livarno to build a base. As a defeated power, Italy had very little choice but to comply with this demand. The base contains a hospital unit and a mobile hospital unit which can respond anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere within 18 hours. The other Army base is Caserma Edele Army Base in Vicenza, Italy. During the 1980s, “its main goal was to protect the Alpine Bases from Soviet Invasion” (US Military Bases), representing clear U.S. Cold War policy. Caserma currently houses the headquarters for the United States Army Africa, this makes it one of the most important bases for the U.S. military. The United States Air Force has a base in Aviano, Italy. This base has been an Italian base since 1911, which was captured by Allied forces during World War II. In 1955, the U.S. and Italy agreed on a joint operation on the base. The base played a major part during Desert Storm, housing reserves. 

Overall, these bases were built during a time when the U.S. was the most powerful nation on Earth. These bases were a result of American economic and cultural imperialism in Italy post WWII. In the current political climate, Italy is very much a capitalist nation and our close ally. It is my personal opinion that all bases should be closed except for Aviano and Caserma. Aviano is a jointly run base with Italy and therefore appropriate. Caserma is crucial to the American military due to its role as America’s Headquarter for Africa. These bases could be expanded at their present location in order to consolidate the activities of the other less necessary bases. 

Work Cited: 

“US Military Bases - Air Force Bases, Army Bases, Navy Bases, Marine.” Military Bases, 25 May 2018, militarybases.com/.  

Wingfield, Brian. “U.S. to Shut Base in Italy That Aids Nuclear Subs.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Nov. 2005, www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/world/europe/us-to-shut-base-in-italy-that-aids-nuclear-subs.html. 

Feminist Perspective: U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan.

 My blog is going to be focusing on the United States removing their troops from Afghanistan and what effects this will have on the local women and girls in the country. The Department of the Defense article that I am going to be focusing on, discusses how the support for Afghanistan in the future will mostly be financial. Financial support is mainly in regards to paying Afghan National Defense and Security Forces and providing maintenance for military aircraft. There is also a major focus on the Kabul Airport being a stable location for the future of a Post-U.S. Afghanistan. 

From a strictly American perspective, this all seems like a good thing. We obviously cannot afford to stay in Afghanistan forever and at least the U.S. is providing funds to help the country run smoothly following American departure. From a feminist perspective on the hand, this is not a good situation. One of the biggest issues with the Taliban is their stance against young women, getting an education. Young women were brutally attacked, had their schools burned down, killed, and had acid thrown on them. During the U.S. occupation, the presence of the U.S. troops could prevent such brutality from occurring. Now that the Americans are leaving, there is the terrifying chance that the Taliban could spread their power and continue their brutality towards young women and girls. Taliban control is spread throughout the country, though heavily in the more rural southern, southwestern, northern  areas of the country. These areas are under Taliban control or Taliban contested control. On the other hand, there is no Taliban control in major government controlled cities like Kabul. Therefore the securing of a far off airport does very little for protection of young women in these rural areas and the Afghan forces taking back these areas will be even more difficult once American troops are gone. 

Overall, through continued funding of Afghan military forces America is attempting to keep some stability in the region. Also control of the Kabul airport will act as a way that we can supply the Afghan army with weapons that they can use to fight the Taliban. Hopefully these actions can be enough to defeat the Taliban or at the very least keep them at bay. I myself am not so optimistic, especially if we go off of our historical experience in our troop withdrawal from Vietnam. Taliban power is entrenched in everyday Afghan society and our troop withdrawal could lead to the Taliban’s attacks on women and girls growing, if the Afghan armed forces do not have the ability to stop them. I also have attached a map below of government, contested, and Taliban controlled areas in Afghanistan.  

Work Cited: 

Lopez, C. Todd. “Military Leaders Plan for Post-Withdrawal Financial Support for Afghans.” U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/2642935/military-leaders-plan-for-post-withdrawal-financial-support-for-afghans/.