Computer Science 39 K: Information Technology Goes to War

Professor Katz, Spring 2009

Research Theme, Due 6 May

Your main assignment for this semester is to provide a short research paper on the Obama Administration's new counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan. Your paper should address the following issues:

What is the current "legitimate" government of Afghanistan and what is its political organization (e.g., the constitutional form of the government, executive/legislative/judicial branches, organization of the army and police forces, etc.)?
Who are the "insurgents", what are their political goals, and what part of the country of Afghanistan do they currently control?"
What military tactics are the insurgents pursuing, how are they organized militarily, and how are they funded? Who is supplying them armaments and of what kinds?
It has been stated that previous Western military efforts in Afghanistan have failed to contain the insurgency. What military and policing tactics were used and why did they fail?
The Obama Administration has announced a new counter-insurgency strategy for Afghanistan, under the leadership of General David Petraeus, and additional U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan from Iraq. What is this new U.S. counter-insurgency strategy and what military technologies are likely to be deployed in its pursuit? Will these technologies be effective against the insurgency? Why or why not?
In your own opinion, is this new counter-insurgency strategy likely to yield success? If so, why, and if not, why not?

Your paper may be as long or as short as you want and need it to be, to make your point. Your instructor expects approximately five pages to be sufficiently long enough to do a minimum job, but you can make it longer if you like and find the topic personally interesting to you. Please provide a complete list of the references you used, including books and newspaper articles, as well as the usual on-line resources. While it is ok to make use of wikipedia, do not believe everything you read there. Be critical of such sources.