Feminist Legal Theory as a Way to Explain the Lack of Progress of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan: The Need for a State Strength Approach

Cultural and religious practices are critical to explaining Afghanistan’s dreadful reputation concerning the preservation, protection, and promotion of women’s rights. Those advocating misogynistic practices assert that the calls for reforms challenge their religion and culture, while also claiming that many women’s issues exist within the private realm. Accordingly, they assert that reforms that aim at addressing disempowerment are not vital to the state and go beyond the established limits of state authority. Building on feminist legal theory, which distinguishes between the public and private spheres, I argue in Afghanistan misogynistic and discriminatory practices stem from contrived cultural and religious norms. Using the notion of state strength, this Paper advances the idea that the discourses countering the lack of official action in ending discrimination must emphasize that unless women’s role in contemporary Afghan society is strengthened, the state will continue to remain weak

Impact of the New Right on the Reagan administration: Kirkpatrick & UNESCO as a test case.

The aim of this research is to investigate whether the Reagan administration was influenced by 'New Right' ideas. Foreign policy issues were chosen as test cases because the presidency has more power in this area which is why it could promote an aggressive stance toward the United Nations and encourage withdrawal from UNESCO with little impunity. Chapter 1 deals with American society after 1945. It shows how the ground was set for the rise of Reagan and the New Right as America moved from a strong affinity with New Deal liberalism to a new form of conservatism, which the New Right and Reagan epitomised. Chapter 2 analyses the New Right as a coalition of three distinctive groups: anti-liberals, New Christian Right, and neoconservatives. Each group is examined in turn. Chapter 3 looks at whether the Reagan administration was a New Right administration. The chapter is divided into three sections; economic, social and foreign policy. In each domain one can see the administration's attempt to fulfil its New Right agenda with varying degrees of success. Chapter 4 investigates Kirkpatrick's approach to the United Nations. Her themes at the UN ('America First', liberty and the Western political system, politicisation and the 'rights debate') were very much in line with what the New Right was seeking of Reagan both internally and externally. Chapter 5 examines the reasons behind the American decision to withdraw from UNESCO in 1984. It demonstrates that the reasons for the withdrawal were essentially political, as the justifications given by the administration were weak. In conclusion the essence of the thesis is to show that the Reagan presidency embodied many of the ideas of the New Right. Although in domestic policy its success was debatable. However, in foreign policy and especially in US-UN and US- UNESCO relationships the ideas of the New Right were predominant

A Regime in Need of Balance: The UN Counter-­Terrorism Regimes of Security and Human Rights

Since 9/11, the UN’s counter-­‐terrorism regime has developed two distinct approaches to combating international terrorism. The Security Council follows a traditional security doctrine that focuses on how to best protect states from the threat posed by international terrorists. This is largely due to the centrality of the state in Security Council thinking and attitudes. On the other hand, the General Assembly and the various UN human rights organs, influenced by the human security doctrine, have taken a more holistic, human rights-­‐based approach to the threat of international terrorism. This paper offers a review of how the dichotomy above affects the application of UN policy vis-­‐à-­‐vis the UN’s counter-­‐terrorism regime. This paper calls for a bridging of the gap between these two approaches, advocating an interdisciplinary approach that combines the traditional state security and human security regimes

A Regime in Need of Balance: The UN Counter-­Terrorism Regimes of Security and Human Rights

Since 9/11, the UN’s counter-­‐terrorism regime has developed two distinct approaches to combating international terrorism. The Security Council follows a traditional security doctrine that focuses on how to best protect states from the threat posed by international terrorists. This is largely due to the centrality of the state in Security Council thinking and attitudes. On the other hand, the General Assembly and the various UN human rights organs, influenced by the human security doctrine, have taken a more holistic, human rights-­‐based approach to the threat of international terrorism. This paper offers a review of how the dichotomy above affects the application of UN policy vis-­‐à-­‐vis the UN’s counter-­‐terrorism regime. This paper calls for a bridging of the gap between these two approaches, advocating an interdisciplinary approach that combines the traditional state security and human security regimes