06/02/2022
By Karen Mullins

The School of Criminology and Justice Studies is proud to announce a doctoral dissertation defense by Juan Merizalde entitled "Insurgency and the Human Terrain: Evaluating General Strain Theory of Terrorism Afghanistan."

Tuesday, June 14
9 to 10:30 a.m.
Via Zoom

Committee:

  • Neil Shortland, Chair
  • Angélica Durán-Martínez
  • James Forest
  • Christopher Linebarger

ABSTRACT: The war in Afghanistan spanned two decades of conflict across a vast country. For the most part, combat operations led by the International Assistance Force (ISAF) increasingly sought to transfer the country’s security responsibility back to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), its civic institutions, and its people. As a result, ISAF began relying on these partnerships to ensure the success of the transition became critical to the state’s overall security and future. However, the incessant cases of insurgent attacks throughout the countryside demonstrated a deeper problem with the shift of security responsibilities, impacting every sociological aspect of the country. These tectonic shifts within the sociological landscape are not new and have been experienced by many people throughout the last century, including the Afghan population. However, unlike previous conflicts involving Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sought to shift the responsibility of self-determination back to the people, which created some unforeseen security conditions such as tribal infighting, lack of training, and political violence. These security conditions fluctuated across Afghanistan, and similarly, its effects were perceived differently by the various populations across a multiethnic countryside. This study aims to unearth these effects by understanding the relationship between military combat operations and their impacts on insurgent activity. More specifically, this study analyzes the relationship between population strains created by military operations and insurgent activity. Results from a series of hybrid-effects models demonstrate significant support for strains increasing insurgent activity and supporting GSTT as a framework for understanding insurgencies. As it stands, explanations of insurgencies have been mainly dominated by theories emerging from political science and, to some effect, economics. This study intends to use the general strain theory of terrorism (GSTT) as the theoretical framework to understand these relationships better and outline causal mechanisms for insurgent activity. In the field of criminology, strain theories have successfully explained deviant behavior throughout various societies. Similarly, explaining such behavior is vital to understanding the human landscape, and in the concept of counterinsurgency (COIN), it is essential.