Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: October 2012

Poor Afghans farm hashish as alternative to poppy

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Xinhua. 22 October 2012 The Chinese news agency reports from Baghlan province how Afghan farmers, threatened by winter, return to hashish growing. It also reports that Baghlan and Faryab provinces in the northern region and Kapisa province in the eastern region have lost the poppy-free status and resumed poppy cultivation.

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Conservatism by Default: Badakhshan’s Jamiat after Ustad Rabbani

Fabrizio Foschini •

Politics in Badakhshan sometimes seem to follow a separate course than Afghanistan’s mainstream, as is the case in other peripheral areas. Powerbrokers in this remote province – usually former jihadi commanders, most of them linked to the Jamiat-e Islami party – are struggling for control of trafficking and extracting resources from the province and appear […]

Political Landscape Read more

BREAKING NEWS: Harirod Storm Swept the Northern Alborz

Fabrizio Foschini •

Yesterday, 19 October 2012, Tofan Harirod defeated Simorgh Alborz 2-1 in a hotly contested final match of the Roshan Afghan Premier League. This may not have decisive and immediate implications on the political situation of Afghanistan, but the date will indeed remain a memorable one in the annals of Afghan sport. Moreover, it turned out […]

Context and Culture Read more

Social Protection in Afghanistan: Between Conflict, Traditions and International Aid

Martine van Bijlert •

Martine van Bijlert, in: “The Cup, The Gun and The Crescent: Social welfare and civil unrest in Muslim societies”, edited by Sarah Ashencaen Crabtree, Jonathan Parker & Azlinda Azman; Bournemouth University Press (forthcoming) Martine van Bijlert discusses the formal and informal social protection structures in Afghanistan. Formal programmes are modest, despite the high levels of […]

External publications Read more

Converting the Taliban

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Time, 19 October 2012 Air Force Major, who served as an ‘AfPak Hand’ in Helmand supporting the Afghan Peace and Reconciliation Program, thinks out loud. ‘When things are top, down driven you see a lot of hedging type of behavior: “I’ll send six of my young men this way in case this side wins and […]

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19 October 2012 – AAN/AW Transition Seminar Series 1: Lessons Learnt from the Past Elections

AAN • admin •

The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) and Afghanistan Watch (AW) launched the first of a Transition Seminar Series on 18 October 2012. Professor William Maley and AAN’s Martine van Bijlert spoke about the lessons that were learnt through the previous elections in Afghanistan and the implications for the upcoming polls planned for 2014. Follow-up seminars on […]

Events Read more

Afghanistan’s Gray Future

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Foreign Policy, 18 October 2012 The powerful argument of Haseeb Humayoon, a young Afghan analyst based in the country, attacking those who foresee a bleak future for the country, predicting a post-2014 civil war and a Taleban take over. One might add, though, that many of those attacked do not ‘predict’ but discuss possible scenarios.

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Afghan Army Turnover Threatens U.S. Strategy

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New York Times, 15 October 2012 Well, ‘turnover’ is a cautious word: This article discusses the -rising – figures of defections from the ANA. Ron Nordland writes that ‘deserters complain of corruption among their officers, poor food and equipment, indifferent medical care, Taliban intimidation of their families and, probably most troublingly, a lack of belief […]

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Has Taliban Leader Mullah Omar Lost His Mind?

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The Daily Beast (Newsweek blog), 15 October 2012 Interesting article with background of Taleban leader Mulla Omar’s biography and musings about his 11-year silence, explained by either psycholigical problems or even that he might have been killed.

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Afghanistan publishes mining contracts in anti-graft fight

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Reuters, 14 October 2012 As the Afghan government finalizes new laws designed to attract more foreign mining investment, it made public 210 previously awarded contracts in the fields of mining and energy.

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Time to Pack Up

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New York Times, 13 October 2012 In an unusually long editorial, the influential New York Times now takes the position that US troops should withdraw from Afghanistan even before the end of 2014. ‘This conclusion represents a change on our part’, it says. ‘The war in Afghanistan had powerful support at the outset, including ours, […]

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