case studys contempory conflicts and challenges

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• Afghanistan is a stratigically placed country  between the middle east, the indian subcontinent and central asia. many have fought over it and been defeated by the mountains that cover four fiths of it. 1979----The soviet union invaded Afghanistan to set up a comunist government in it. The US and uk were against the soviet union so they funded a rebel group called the mujahdean to opose this. country became a cold war battle ground. 1989----the soviet union left but there was still a conflict between the mujahidean and other afghan fractions for the place of the government. 1996---the taliban a mujahidean group who follow a stict version of sharia law took over government. allowed osama bin laden and other members of al qaeda to remain and set up bases , angering international comunity. 1998---the USA launched missle attacks on these bases. 2001- the 9/11 terrorist bombing of the pentagon and world trade center took place. this was belived to be done by al qaeda. US launched a war on terror and demanded the taliban government handed  Osama bin laden to trial. they refused. so USA invaded afghanistan supported by an international coalition including opposed afghan forces, which aimed to destroy al qaeda, bring bin laden to trial and ensure afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists. within weeks forced taliban from kabul and power-replaced taliban government. 2004--- Karzai won countrys first direct presedential ellection. 2006--- North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) took command of the coalition. 2009--- Barack Obama proposed new stratagie to send in more US troops to train Afghan army and police who will replace them so all US and UK soldiers will have left by 2014   2011--- osama bin laden shot to death by US lead opperation. Al qaeda and taliban vowed to avange him.  2013 ---- imn may it was announced troops would stay longer in afghanistan so that only two more troops have to be sent there befor the full withdrawal.however it has been agreed that some british troops will stay in afghanistan untill march 2015 inorder to oversee the logistical opperation of removing the vast amounts of containers of british kit from Afghanistan.  t talliban group who follow a strikt ver

1. no security without developement

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   • today the best agricultural land is used to grow illegl poppys for heroin. political and social syctems in afghanistan  hold it back economically and demographicly. international donators pledged over $ 10 billion but government say they need more.
2. no development without security

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   • some say afghanistans demographic characteristics are unlikely to change untill a long period of peace with external aid allows the economy to develop. Islamic millitants, warlords and drugs barrons amoung graetest threats to stability. state of lawlessness fueled by opium trade despite ban on poppy growing.
   1. Bangladesh

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      • repeated flooding is preventing development- development needed to prevent flooding.
3. china

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   • developing gdp but political socially represed development here restricted.
4. impacts

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   • the taliban do not belive in womans rights and when they came into power femails were not alowed to get educations or have jobs but had to stay at home. women recived no medical care as male doctors were not allowed to aid them and femail doctors were not allowed to work. the opium trade is the only sucessfull way to generate money. it is the only export which can survive the journy across the war torn roads. 2/3rds of the money afghanistan generates comes fro the opium trade.
   1. attempts to solve the problem

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      • many of the schools which have suposedly been rebuilt are still teaching pupils in tents in the mud.
   2. social

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      • an estimated 11 thousand  Afghan citizens were killed as a result of this conflict. over 1800 coalition troops were killed. 6 million afghan people had fled to refugee camps in iran and pakistan, some in the USA. these lack basic supplies and expirience regular cholera and TB outbreaks. serivses cant grow so health and education limited. coallition air raids and night raids spread fear. there is evidence that the taliban, local security and US soldiers have tortured prisoners- against human rights. afghanistan is at stage 2 in the dtm- high birth and death rates (however dispite two decades of war this is fallling significantly) and a rapidly rising population- emated 2.6% per year.  45 % of the population are under 16 and only 2% are over 65. infant mortality and fertility rate both high. sparsly populated- 78% of people live in rural areas and 20% are nomadic making data collection very difficult. urban population growth is higher than national at 6.9% due to inmigration and higher natural increase. Authoritys have limited controle outside kabul- large areas of country controled by warlords once funded by uSA to fight talibban many have a history of drug trafficing and human rights abuse.
      1. economic

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         • afghanistans economy is limited by its current pollitical situation. many countries are funding the conflict- in 2010 the US had spent  $ 740 billion UK had spent £11.1 billion. the fear of terrorisem has lead to increased security at airports and public or political events in the uk and usa. Afghanistan has had its economic growth halted and is one of the poorest countries in the world and reliant on international aid. it has got poorer over the conflict as the cost of reparing infrastructure will be high. afghanistans economy is largly subsistence agriculture. however the country has considerable agricultural potential  especially if more irrigation was employed. afghanistan produces 90% of worlds opium which accounts for 1 third of the countrys income
         1. environmental

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            • toxic chemicles put into the air water and earth from explosives.  since the start of the conflict the size of forrests has halfed due to illegal logging for fuel and cooking by the impovished population. much infrastructure has been destroyed such as sanitation and wast management which are in many areas non existant. illegal wild animal hunting to sell fur has increased.
            1. education

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               • The taliban belive a womans place is at home. when they took over the goverment took over in 1996 educations and carees for femails ended in 2000 89% of the femail population aged over 14 had no education at all. women had no acess to medical care as they cant be treated by men. this is the worst example odf a lack of opotunity in the world today.
5. other info

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   • many belive that diplomatic talks with the taliban, afghan government, nighbouring countries and other involved groups is the best way to deal with this problem. Others belive that military action is necassary to prevent a civil war and the taliban returning to power creating a regime abusing human rights. One of the many issues with seting up a sucessful democratic central government is that the people in afghanistan dont see it as a single state but as many seperat areas occupird by tribal groups who hold very different belifes and cant be ruled by the same government as they don't agree.

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• since 1603 scotland has had a shared monarchy with england. in 1997 74% of scots voted in favour of having their own parliment. by 1999 this controled most domestic affairs such as education health. the scotish inderpendence reforendum is due in 2014. want to be able to set own immigration rules to suit it. still wants to be in eu but eu arguee they would have to re apply- may not be accepteds they gained fro being in it a long time .  Also as new members they would lose the priverlagemany scots feel they are being run by a government they did not vote for and that they were outnumbered by english and welsh who dont have scotlands intrests at heart. scots also have a seperate culture and identity which they are proud of. scotish seperatists belive the uk is failing to close the gap between rich and poor  through taxation and that they could do some more effectivly but need indipendence. they would clamp down on tax avasion. englannd argue boarder control mey need to be set up between england and scotland if they were seperate making traveling difficult and cuting scolland of from jobs in london. currently scotish unemployment is higher than in uk and so far the uk has been sucessful for scotland over all. easier to meet global challenges like un millenium develompent goals when united. the SNP have been accused of not being clear and honest about how scotland will work if seperated eg the eu rules.

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• supports devrelopment