Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: November 2013

The First Inklings of the Bilateral Security Agreement: Spanta briefs the Afghan parliament

Kate Clark •

Both Afghan and United States officials have, until now, been tight-lipped as to what is in the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) – which is to be scrutinised by a consultative loya jirga beginning on 21 November. If signed, it will govern the post-2014 deployment of US soldiers in Afghanistan. On Saturday, 16 November 2013, the […]

War and Peace Read more

How will Afghanistan election affect U.S. interests?

AAN Team •

USA Today, 17 November 2013 The US daily, discussing possible implications of the 2014 Afghan election and end of the last Karzai term on the US, quotes AAN’s Kate Clark about Ustad Sayyaf, one of the candidates for Karzai’s succession: Kate Clark, an analyst with the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analyst Network, said Sayyaf has won the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Afghan Talks at Impasse Before Vote, Officials Say

AAN •

New York Times, 17 November 2013 "Despite recent optimism about talks over a future American military presence here, two senior Afghan officials said on Sunday that the negotiations [about the US-Afghan BSA] were at a profound impasse", days before the BSA loya jirga is scheduled to meet. "The officials said both sides had refused to budge […]

Recommended Reads Read more

The Nerkh Killings: The problem with ‘immunity’ for US soldiers

Kate Clark •

Revelations concerning the alleged involvement of US soldiers in the forced disappearance, murder and torture of Afghans in the Nerkh district of Wardak a year ago keep surfacing. The US insists its forces come only under US legal jurisdiction, that they are ‘immune’ from Afghan courts and that it will investigate any wrongdoing by its […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Jirga Schedule Set, Karzai Reaffirms BSA Focus

AAN •

ToloNews, 13 November 2013 Not much has filtered out yet about the choice of delegates, composition, agenda and so forth of the upcoming jirga that will decided about the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement. Here a few details, like delegates will break up into "17 categories" on the gathering's first day to be briefed about details […]

Recommended Reads Read more

“Opium anzubauen bringt den afghanischen Bauern am meisten”

Thomas Ruttig •

SRF4 (Swiss radio), 14 Noveember 2013 Listen to the audio of an interview AAN’s Thomas Ruttig gave to Swiss radio about the latest UNODC report regarding poppy cultivation.

AAN in the Media Read more

Why the Status of Forces Agreement Is So Important for Afghanistan

AAN Team •

Antiwar (blog), 14 November 2013 The blog with the self-explanatory name writes, pointing to and linking with Kate Clark’s dispatch about ‘the problem of US soldiers’ immunity’: The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) meticulously documents numerous cases in which U.S. forces have been credibly accused of war crimes or abuses and do not face punishment [and] […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Blühende Landschaften: Vor dem Abzug der internationalen Truppen floriert in Afghanistan der Mohn-Anbau

Thomas Ruttig •

Die Welt, 14 Novemeber 2014 The German daily reports about the latest UNODC poppy report on Afghanistan and extensively quotes AAN’s Doris Buddenberg and Thomas Ruttig: “As a result of the upcoming troop withdrawal, the pressure to act against poppy cultivation has dropped significantly”, says Thomas Ruttig, Co-Direktor of the Thinktank Afghan [sic] Analysts Network. The government’s […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Rekord bei Opiumanbau in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Deutsche Welle, 13 November 2013 The German international radio reports that the latest UNODC report found that the acreage used for poppy growing has never been as large as this year. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted extensively about the histroy of poopy cultivation and the contradictions in the West’s anti-narcotics policy: “The opium boom is a […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Afghanistan, After the War Boom

AAN Team •

The New Yorker (blog), 13 November 2013 “This year, Afghanistan’s GDP is expected to grow 3.7 per cent, down from growth of twelve per cent in 2012, according to a projection by the World Bank”, writes May Jeong and visits Kabul to find out about Afghanistan’s post-2014 economic future, in the light of the current foreign […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Bundeswehr in Afghanistan: Mission Augen zu und durch

AAN Team •

Spiegel online, 12 November 2013 The website of the influential German weekly political magazine also picks up Philipp Münch’s AAN report about the impact of the international intervention on Afghan power structures, with the case studies of Kunduz and Badakhshan. The magazine writes – not fully accurately – that the author “accuses the Bundeswehr that, with […]

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Bundeswehr stützte indirekt Warlords

AAN Team •

Tagesspiegel, 13 November 2013 THis Berlin-based daily also reports about Philipp Münch’s AAN report about the impact of the international intervention on Afghan power structures, asking the question whether “the glass is half-full or half-empty” after the intervention. The report adds the information that the German government has for the first time admitted that it supported […]

AAN in the Media Read more

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