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Following the dramatic evacuation from Kabul airport in August 2021, the UK government proclaimed its commitment to a 'warm welcome' for Afghans. In this paper we draw on original qualitative research to explore the emerging experiences of evacuees, and other recent arrivals, during their first year in London. Using the narratives of our Afghans participants, as well as insights from key stakeholders, we show how they navigated slow, opaque bureaucratic processes and lack of communication with official agencies. As a result of these lengthy processes, many thousands of evacuees remained in temporary hotel accommodation for protracted periods. Drawing on the concept of 'everyday bordering', we explore the extent to which Afghan resettlement policies are achieving their objectives. We consider how such policies are birthed within a punitive immigration system, which is designed to 'wear down' migrants in the UK, regardless of their reason for migration. Moreover, we argue that the ad hoc response of the Home Office and the Foreign Office has created 'false distinctions' between categories of Afghan refugees, reinforcing notions of 'deserving' versus 'underserving' migrants. This distinction allows the government to present itself as humanitarian, 'rescuing' people from Afghanistan, while simultaneously maintaining its commitment to the 'hostile immigration environment'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Penetrating Neck Injuries (PNIs) affected 3.2% of trauma patients attending US and UK deployed medical treatment facilities (MTFs) during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. Injured military personnel requiring aeromedical evacuation for such injuries were managed at the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine (RCDM), Birmingham, UK. The aim of this paper was to review the management of PNI in both deployed MTFs and when evacuated back to the UK.Patients and Methods: A retrospective case note review was performed of all military patients who sustained PNI whilst on deployment overseas, and who were subsequently evacuated to RCDM between March 2003 and December 2014.Results: Forty casualties who sustained PNI were identified, of which 28/40 (70%) sustained injury from explosive fragmentation, and 11/40 (28%) from gunshot wounds. Hard signs of PNI were present in 3/40 (7.5%) patients, soft signs in 14/40 (35%), no signs in 12/40 (30%), and unknown signs in 11/40 (28%) patients. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) was used in 39/40 (98%) patients, and was effective at ruling out significant injury, with 100% (29/29) of casualties with a negative CTA not developing vascular or aerodigestive injury. There were 9/29 (31%) patients who had surgical neck exploration despite both a negative CTA and absence of hard signs of PNI. There were 12/40 (30%) patients who required operative intervention at RCDM.Conclusion: UK military surgeons in Role 3 MTFs had a low threshold for surgical exploration, even in the absence of CT findings or hard signs. This was likely due to the high-energy mechanisms responsible for military PNI, in addition to the limited availability of equipment and clinical expertise in visualising the larynx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afghanistan is the country in the world with the most SALW (small arms and light weapons). Contrary to what is usually assumed, the proliferation of modern firearms in the country did not start in the 1980s, but at the end of the 19th century, when Pashtun tribes acquired modern rifles and ammunition through a variety of means, mostly through smuggling. The paper investigates the illegal arms trade from the Gulf to the north-western Indian Frontier, an area of crucial importance for British imperial strategists and the Government of India, at a time of great power rivalry and a relative decline of Britain's global influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the 2010 Ethnic Minority British Election Study to look at the political attitudes of Muslims in Britain. It tests the relationship between political alienation and political participation on the one hand, and Islamophobia and disapproval of British military involvement in Afghanistan on the other. The principal findings are that perceptions of Islamophobia are linked to greater political alienation, to a greater likelihood of non-electoral participation and to a lower likelihood of voting among Muslims. Likewise, disapproval of the war in Afghanistan is associated with greater political alienation and a greater likelihood of some types of non-electoral participation. There is strong evidence that British Muslims are more likely to interpret discrimination they experience as motivated by their religion and that they perceive more prejudice at the group level. These findings have two theoretical implications. First, they support the theory that non-electoral participation is motivated by dissatisfaction with the party political system. Second, they suggest that perceptions of sociotropic discrimination (for minorities) and a rare salient political issue in which all parties are in opposition to most voters can lead to negative affect towards the political system and stimulate non-electoral participation at the expense of voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-traumatic growth (PTG) is a positive psychological consequence of trauma. The aims of this study were to investigate whether combat injury was associated with deployment-related PTG in a cohort of UK military personnel who were deployed to Afghanistan, and whether post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and pain mediate this relationship. Methods: 521 physically injured (n = 138 amputation; n = 383 non-amputation injury) and 514 frequency-matched uninjured personnel completed questionnaires including the deployment-related Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (DPTGI). DPTGI scores were categorised into tertiles of: no/low (score 0–20), moderate (score 21–34) or a large (35–63) degree of deployment-related PTG. Analysis was completed using generalised structural equation modelling. Results: A large degree of PTG was reported by 28.0% (n = 140) of the uninjured group, 36.9% (n = 196) of the overall injured group, 45.4% (n = 62) of amputee and 34.1% (n = 134) of the non-amputee injured subgroups. Combat injury had a direct effect on reporting a large degree of PTG [Relative risk ratio (RRR) 1.59 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17–2.17)] compared to sustaining no injury. Amputation injuries also had a significant direct effect [RRR 2.18 (95% CI 1.24–3.75)], but non-amputation injuries did not [RRR 1.35 (95% CI 0.92–1.93)]. PTSD, depression and pain partially mediate this relationship, though mediation differed depending on the injury subtype. PTSD had a curvilinear relationship with PTG, whilst depression had a negative association and pain had a positive association. Conclusions: Combat injury, in particular injury resulting in traumatic amputation, is associated with reporting a large degree of PTG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings a relational perspective to studies of citizenship beyond national borders. Analysing the responses of 16 to 19-year-old young people in Bradford ( UK) to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we demonstrate the complex entanglements of young people's lives with international politics and develop a relational conceptualisation of citizenship. Departing from the scalar logics and universalising assumptions upon which many definitions of cosmopolitan citizenship are based, we show that youth citizenship across and beyond national borders evolves from specific lines of connection and disconnection that are actualised and modified in performances of citizenship identities, giving rise to diverse political positions and dissent, both with the state and between young people. We conclude with some suggestions for translating these ideas into youth citizenship practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that UK veterans are seen as victims with concern for their perceived mental health needs. This study examined sociodemographic factors that contribute to victimizing conceptualizations of British Army Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. UK participants (N = 234) provided three word associations to "British Army Iraq Veteran" and "British Army Afghanistan Veteran" and answered sociodemographic questions. A multiple linear regression outlines that low national pride, mission opposition and higher levels of education predict elevated victimizing word associations. Narrative accounts from UK interviews (N = 21) suggest that participants who perceived the recent conflicts as illegitimate conceptualize veterans as passive, naïve actors who had to submit to the agency of the anthropomorphic described government. This allowed holding overtly appreciative though belittling attitudes toward veterans, while opposing the missions. To dissociate veterans from victimizing perceptions, better knowledge about service and justifications for deployments need to be provided. Study limitations, including over sampling of young adult females, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the way education and conflict have become entangled during the post-9/11 "war on terror" response to "radical Islam" at home and abroad. The paper charts the complex ways that education has been deployed to serve Western military and security objectives in multiple locations in the global south and how these strategies have now returned to the "West" in the form of "countering violent extremism" interventions. Drawing on Foucault's concept of the "boomerang effect" I will explore whether and how education techniques and strategies deployed abroad in pursuit of imperial interests return to the West and are deployed to monitor, control and suppress marginalised communities in a form of "internal colonialism". Finally, the paper brings the two sections together in the Findings to explore commonalities and divergences.

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The present article is built on the premise that both the British Empire in the 19th century (during its rivalry with Russia, known as the Great Game) and the United States in the 20th century treated Afghanistan as a means to an end in their quest to fulfil their strategic interests, without much concern for the country's people, history and traditions, which ultimately contributed to their failure: Britain was forced to accept Afghanistan's independence in 1919 at the end of the third Anglo-Afghan war, while the US withdrew its troops in August 2021, putting an end to what proved to be an unwinnable war. The article's main body examines the British and American presence in Afghanistan through the lens of a historical comparison meant to highlight the similarities and differences in their approaches, while the conclusion contains a few lessons the US should learn from Afghanistan that might, ideally, inform its future interventionist strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine the representational practices of British newspapers in relation to forms of military injury. Using critical discourse analysis, we studied the reporting of injuries sustained by military personnel during the height of the UK's war in Afghanistan in 2009 – and a comparison period five years later – and concluded that representations of injured personnel differed substantially between articles reporting on 'combat' and 'non-combat' injuries. We argue that the different reporting frames work to construct a moral separation of injuries into 'heroic' (combat) and 'non-heroic' (non-combat) forms. The consequences of this hierarchization of injury, we suggest, include the reification of 'combat' as an idealized form of masculine violence, the privileging of some soldiers and veterans over others as exemplars of national heroism, and elision of the day-to-day realities of military injury from public consciousness. Findings are discussed in relation to broader consequences for understanding heroism and the military. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally seen as an interlocutor between Europe and the US in transatlantic security relations, the UK's engagement with the training of the Afghan National Police (ANP) through the concurrent EU and NATO missions presents an interesting case of foreign policy decision-making. Although a logic based on broader British orientations about the roles of the two organisations expect that the UK's primary institution of choice would be NATO, London supported both missions in providing international policing assistance to Afghanistan. Adopting an operational overlap perspective, this article seeks to explain the UK's strategic behaviour vis-a-vis the EU and NATO training missions that have been simultaneously involved in overlapping tasks, despite the initial intention that the two missions would undertake different and complementary roles. Analysing evidence from the UK Parliament and Government, US diplomatic missions, the EU and NATO, as well as interviews with former UK and NATO officials, this article argues that while providing training to the Afghan police, London focused on these missions' practical outputs rather than preferring an organisation of choice as such. This strategy is mainly guided by the UK's concern to uphold counter-narcotics enforcement in Afghanistan and to fulfil transition tasks during the incremental withdrawal of British troops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute trauma coagulopathy (ATC) after military trauma has not been comprehensively studied. ATC is defined as a prolonged prothrombin time ratio (PTr) or reduced clot amplitude (A5) in viscoelastic testing. Compared to civilian trauma, military trauma has more injuries from explosions and gunshot wounds (GSWs), potentially leading to a different pathophysiology for traumatic coagulopathy. This study aimed to characterize military ATC on admission to a military hospital in Afghanistan and to explore any differences due to the mechanism of injury.Methods: Severely injured military casualties were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were taken on admission and after routine testing, waste plasma was prepared, frozen, and transported to the United Kingdom for in-depth hemostatic analysis.Results: Seventy-seven percent of casualties had ATC defined by a PTr greater than 1.2 and 19% when defined by rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) A5 less than 36 mm. Coagulation factor depletion correlated with degree of shock, particularly factor V (p < 0.01), factor X (p < 0.01), and fibrinogen levels (p < 0.01). Thrombin generation was well preserved. Fibrinolytic biomarkers were raised correlating with the degree of shock (p < 0.01), and 8% of casualties had hyperfibrinolysis on ROTEM analysis. Plasmin-antiplasmin complexes (p < 0.01) and d-dimer levels (p = 0.01) were higher and clot firmness lower (p = 0.02) in those injured by explosion compared to GSW's.Conclusions: ATC was present and correlated with shock, similar to civilian trauma. Thrombin generation remained adequate. Fibrinogen and factor V levels were disproportionately low but still sufficient to allow clot formation. Fibrinolysis is a key feature, probably due to a tissue plasminogen activator surge at the time of injury. Blast injuries are associated with a greater activation of fibrinolysis than GSWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters with combat and other operational experiences among United Kingdom Armed Forces (UK AF) personnel who deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 were examined. Previous studies suggest that the risk of developing PTSD rises as combat exposure levels increase. To date, no UK research has investigated how specific classes of combat and operational experiences relate to PTSD symptom clusters. The current study was a secondary analysis of data derived from a two-arm cluster, randomized-controlled trial of a postdeployment operational stress-reduction intervention in deployed UK AF personnel. 2510 UK AF personnel provided combat exposure data and completed the PTSD checklist (civilian version) immediately post-deployment while 1635 of the original cohort completed further followed-up measures four to six months later. A 14-item combat experience scale was explored using principle component analysis, which yielded three main categories of experience: (1) violent combat, (2) proximity to wounding or death and (3) encountering explosive devices. The association of combat experience classes to PTSD 5-factor “dysphoric arousal” model (re-experiencing, avoidance, numbing, dysphoric-arousal and anxious-arousal symptoms) was assessed. Greater exposure to violent combat was predictive of re-experiencing and numbing symptoms, while proximity to wounding or death experiences were predictive of re-experiencing and anxious-arousal symptoms. Explosive device exposure was predictive of anxious-arousal symptoms. The present study suggests that categories of combat experience differentially impact on PTSD symptom clusters and may have relevance for clinicians treating military personnel following deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Trauma Risk Management (TRiM) is a peer-led, occupational mental health support process that aims to identify and assist U.K. military personnel with persistent mental ill health related to potentially traumatic events (PTEs). This study compared help seeking, mental disorder symptoms, and alcohol use between TRiM recipients and personnel experiencing similar combat events who did not receive TRiM; an unexposed group provided context.Methods: Records of TRiM activity during a U.K. military deployment in Afghanistan were linked to contemporaneous survey data assessing mental health and combat experiences. The resulting deployment data set was amalgamated with mental health, alcohol use, and help-seeking data collected within 12 weeks of homecoming and again one to two years later. Mental health and help-seeking outcomes were compared between a nonexposed, non-TRiM sample (n = 161), an exposed, non-TRiM sample (n = 149), and an exposed, TRiM-recipient sample (n = 328) using logistic regression analyses.Results: At follow-up, TRiM recipients were significantly more likely to seek help from mental health services than exposed, non-TRiM personnel. At baseline, TRiM recipients had significantly greater adjusted odds of reporting possible posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than exposed non-TRiM personnel; the difference was not significant at follow-up. TRiM recipients were significantly more likely to report persistent mental disorder and alcohol misuse caseness over the follow-up period.Conclusions: TRiM recipients were significantly more likely to seek help from mental health services than a similar PTE-exposed group that did not receive TRiM; however, TRiM recipients experienced more persistent mental ill-health symptoms and hazardous alcohol use over the period of follow-up despite seeking help. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Young separated refugees are exiled from familiar places and on seeking asylum encounter new, potentially alienating, places. Yet, there is limited research regarding the effects of location on the psychological experiences of young separated refugees. This study explores the relationships that young adults who arrived in the UK as separated refugees have with the spaces that they inhabit and the consequences of these. It draws on qualitative interviews with young men from Iraq and Afghanistan who are living in London. Four key themes emerged from the analysis. Participants felt frustrated in bureaucratic settings where processes of labelling and physical manipulation prevented their sense of subjectivity from being expressed. Certain community spaces offered a rich range of support Micro-spaces of belonging and embodied processes of exploration in the wider community were also reported to be psychologically beneficial. The themes suggest that considerations of young separated refugees' relations to place may provide alternative psychological understandings of their experiences, particularly in relation to concepts such as trauma. Policy implications related to immigration control and the benefits of community projects are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contemporary image of the British soldier, especially where the opportunity for soldiers to tell their own stories is highlighted as the core justification in the presentation of co-produced materials. The authors consider the particular generic affordances, constraints and aesthetics of two recent projects, Our War (BBC 3) and War Story (Imperial War Museum), both of which hope to offer a ‘direct’ insight into soldiers’ experiences in Afghanistan, albeit through the lenses of public institutions which inevitably come with their own interpretive frameworks. At the heart of the study are the concept of self-representation and the idea of the portrait. The article examines recurrent themes, styles of portrayal and notable absences, asking, for example: how do the different dimensions of mediation constitute the soldiers as ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’? The authors argue that it is theoretically and empirically productive to analyse the two projects together as interconnected forms of a ‘genre of self-representation’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses Britain's contemporary relationship with Afghanistan, its goals and interests there, and its possible post-2014 role. It is argued that Britain might continue to play a limited but non-negligible military, intelligence, fiscal, and diplomatic role, even as British policymakers are increasingly bound by fiscal and domestic political constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Death as a consequence of underbody blast (UBB) can most commonly be attributed to central nervous system injury. UBB may be considered a form of tertiary blast injury but is at a higher rate and somewhat more predictable than injury caused by more classical forms of tertiary injury. Recent studies have focused on the transmission of axial load through the cervical spine with clinically relevant injury caused by resultant compression and flexion. This paper seeks to clarify the pattern of head and neck injuries in fatal UBB incidents using a pragmatic anatomical classification., Methods: This retrospective study investigated fatal UBB incidents in UK triservice members during recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Head and neck injuries were classified by anatomical site into: skull vault fractures, parenchymal brain injuries, base of skull fractures, brain stem injuries and cervical spine fractures. Incidence of all injuries and of each injury type in isolation was compared., Results: 129 fatalities as a consequence of UBB were identified of whom 94 sustained head or neck injuries. 87 casualties had injuries amenable to analysis. Parenchymal brain injuries (75%) occurred most commonly followed by skull vault (55%) and base of skull fractures (32%). Cervical spine fractures occurred in only 18% of casualties. 62% of casualties had multiple sites of injury with only one casualty sustaining an isolated cervical spine fracture., Conclusion: Improvement of UBB survivability requires the understanding of fatal injury mechanisms. Although previous biomechanical studies have concentrated on the effect of axial load transmission and resultant injury to the cervical spine, our work demonstrates that cervical spine injuries are of limited clinical relevance for UBB survivability and that research should focus on severe brain injury secondary to direct head impact., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2019. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.)