Prarthana Gurung
URES – Jason Davidson
Spring 2012
My undergraduate research assignment with Professor Davidson engaged me in
researching diplomatic cables on an online source called Cablesearch, and chronologically
compiling and categorizing these relevant cables. The larger project is a working paper/potential
book called “Heading for the Exits: America’s Allies and Withdrawal from Iraq and
Afghanistan”. The purpose of this paper is to determine the reasons behind the premature
withdrawals of three US allied countries: Italy, the Netherlands, and Australia, and how,
potentially, their relations with the US, their international reputation, and domestic climate
affected their decision to enter and withdraw from both the Afghan and Iraq wars. My sole
responsibility was, through cable research, to determine some causal factors of withdrawal that
Italy and the Netherlands had to consider (mostly domestic). While it was challenging at times to
go through hundreds of cables, some classified, others declassified, it was an extremely eyeopening and interesting research experience as one seldom gets to read about the inner-workings
and behind-the-scenes debates of foreign governments.
I went about my research in different layers: first chronologically from the latest cable I
could find, all the way to the date of entrance into either the Afghan or the Iraq war. The second
layer of research was searching for key words, which were the factors of allied decision that
Professor Davidson determined as most significant: alliance value, threat to national interest,
prestige, perceived probability of success, and electoral politics. Of all the cables that I read and
went through, had to have at least one of the key factors/words in the summary of the cable, as
well as the relevant countries, in order to qualify as significant enough to be included in the final
report. The final reports I created consisted of three pairings, one report of all the relevant cables
that had to do with the Netherlands involvement in Afghanistan, one about the Netherlands
involvement in Iraq, and one about the Italian involvement in Afghanistan. For the most part,
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Prarthana Gurung
URES – Jason Davidson
Spring 2012
these cables covered a range of topics from statistics or announcements of troop additions or
withdrawals, debate and discussion in their respective parliaments, updates on the electoral
climate of heads of states, to reports on the meetings between NATO heads of states and allied
forces on the subject of either war. As not all cables were relevant to the paper’s topic despite
including the key words of both countries involved, I had to make sure that each cable included
in the report had the potential of adding substantive evidence for or against the paper’s argument,
instead of some cables that had nothing to do the argument (i.e. cables on the humanitarian
situation in Afghanistan or Iraq).
It really gave me a new perspective on both the Afghan and Iraq wars through this
research opportunity. Both wars had such a huge impact on our country, and still are large factors
in the overall foreign policy. Through the cable research, I was able to get insight into the same
topics I’ve studied time in and out in classes as an International Affairs major, but from the
domestic perspective, and from a classified perspective. Cables are a unique source as opposed to
published works or books in that they are considered high security and/or usually contain
information that at one point was not open to the general public. Keeping this in mind, I took
away a much different perspective on the outside perception of both wars—not from critics, but
actually from countries that we considered our allies. It really helped me realize how the weight
of the American support and association stands as a valued asset, and how far countries will go
to stay in a relationship with the US through something as divisive as a foreign war. All in all, I
really did value this opportunity to work with a professor on his research and to witness higherlevel academic work in its early and burgeoning stages. I hope to be able to utilize the skills I
came to develop during my time researching with Professor Davidson in future careers
opportunities working in either policy-related work or international advocacy work.
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Prarthana Gurung
URES – Jason Davidson
Spring 2012
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