Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: November 2011

Dresden, 30 November 2011: AAN at Kreuzkirche

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On Wednesday, 30 November (7.30 pm), AAN’s Co-Director Thomas Ruttig will speak about ‘Afghanistan: On the way to democracy or civil war’ (in German) as part of the series: ‘Dialog der Kulturen’. Host organisation: Ökumenisches Informationszentrum e.V. (ÖIZ) Venue: Mauersbergersaal, Haus an der Kreuzkirche, Dresden (Germany). Admission is free. More about ÖIZ here

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قرعه‌کشی اعضای پارلمان برای رفتن به ب

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Hasht-e Sobh, 29 November 2011 The article relates the ‘lottery’ among Afghan MPS to get the (few) posts reserved for them at Bonn 2 and the competition that ensued.

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The Thin Red Durand Line

Fabrizio Foschini

The air-strikes that hit two Pakistani check-posts on the border between Mohmand Agency and Kunar province, killing 24 (some sources still report 25 or 26) Pakistani security forces and injuring a dozen more, have triggered, as expected, a strong reaction from the Pakistani authorities. As of now, Pakistan, ISAF and the Afghan military have very […]

Regional Relations Read more

افغانستان دیگر اولویت جهانی نیست

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Hasht-e Sobh, 28 November 2011 Title in English: Afghanistan’s Isn’t the World’s Priority Anymore; Sanjar Sohail’s take on the 23 November Böll conference: ‘We need to find a regional solution ourselves’.

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The Past is Here to Stay: Listening to Afghan Voices on Justice and Reconciliation

Sari Kouvo

The abuses and violations suffered by Afghans during the conflicts are all but forgotten, and although pragmatic about what is possible in the current security environment, Afghans seem to view reconciliation and justice as intimately linked. AAN’s Sari Kouvo takes a look at recent publications by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) documenting Afghan […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Brussels, 29 November 2011: AAN’s Thomas Ruttig with an assessment on the eve of Bonn 2

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AAN’s Thomas Ruttig will speak at the Egmont Institute (Royal Institute for International Relations) of Belgium under the title ‚The political future of Afghanistan: An assessment on the eve of the Bonn conference’. Time: 6 to 8 pm For more information and registration call: +32 (0) 2 223 41 14

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‘Bei uns gucken sie sogar Bollywood-Filme’

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Frankfurter Rundschau, 24 November 2011 Willi Germund talks to a Taleban commander from Ghazni, who came to meet him in Kabul, who tells him that his favourite radio station is the Voice of America, that he doesn’t carry an AK-47 anymore because he is busy collecting ‘taxes’ from ‘the rich’, that Pakistan supports them and […]

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2001 Ten Years on (3): The fall of Loya Paktia and why the US preferred warlords

Kate Clark

In Loya Paktia the people, rather than commanders, overthrew the Taleban in 2001 – one of the very few places where this happened. Tribal councils took power, driving out al-Qaida fighters and doing all of it peacefully. Khost and then Paktia provinces fell to tribal coalitions on 14 November 2001, just one day after the […]

War and Peace Read more

Afghanistan’s business elite has its own election

Martine van Bijlert

Last month Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce, the ACCI, elected its new leadership. The process was not without controversy. A lively pre-election trade in ACCI membership cards allowed large numbers of underage children and people who had nothing to do with running a business to participate in the vote at the provincial level. And at the […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Afghanistan’s Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency

Antonio Giustozzi Mohammad Isaqzadeh

Despite representing the bulk of Afghanistan’s post-2001 policing, the paramilitary dimension of the Afghan police has received little attention among analysts. In AAN’s latest report, ‘Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency’, Antonio Giustozzi and Mohammad Isaqzadeh describe the origin and development of paramilitary policing in Afghanistan, and explore what this means for the […]

Special Reports Read more

Sugar trapped on the Silk Road

Fabrizio Foschini

For many observers of Afghanistan, local and foreigner, Pakistan has become, through the years, an indispensable part of the political equation, its image increasingly darkened by the spread of conflict to its own territory and because of the the charge of interference in the Afghan conflict. Pakistan itself, its politics, society and economy, and especially […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Traditional Loya Jirga 3: lacklustre political theatre (amended)

Kate Clark

The Traditional Loya Jirga (TLJ) is over, after a drab last day in which President Karzai got his public backing for signing a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with the United States. However, it was clear to all watching the proceedings on television that the discussion had hardly been lively and the results tightly controlled. The […]

Political Landscape Read more