Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: October 2014

Taliban return to Afghan town that rose up and drove out its leaders

Martine van Bijlert •

The Guardian, 27 October 2014 Article on the recent fighting in Gizab quotes AAN’s Martine van Bijlert: “The US military expected most Afghans to turn against the Taliban when they realised that government forces were the stronger part. In Gizab, however, residents waited in vain after the revolt for the government to exert control, said […]

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Ruttig on Afghanistan’s prospects

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghan Hindsight, 25 October 2014 Blogger Tim Foxley was so nice to summarise my presentation at Malmö University in Sweden, an event i owe to an invitation from the renowned Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and that evening’s hosts from the Malmö chapter of the Association for Foreign Affairs. Tim found my presentation as follows: ‘mixed pessimism […]

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The New Gangs of Herat: How young Afghans turn away from their community

S Reza Kazemi •

In the city of Herat, an increasing number of young people drop out of school, form petty gangs, become drug addicts and generally have problems with their community. Many of these youth are also connected to friends abroad with several of them migrating to Iran, Europe and Australia to escape the local community, and recently […]

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UK military ‘made wrong calculations’ on Afghanistan

AAN •

BBC, 22 October 2014 The series of admission of grave mistakes in Afghanistan continues: after the US SIGAR called the US anti-narcotics strategy a failure and even the German chancellor expressed doubts whether the NATO training mission should end in 2016, the commander of the British troops in Helmand in 2006 admits – in a […]

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Surprise: U.S. Drug War in Afghanistan Not Going Well

AAN •

The Intercept, 21 October 2014 AAN’s first appearance, through a link, on Glenn Greenwald’s website, in a comment on the latest SIGAR report about the failed anti-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. It says that “Experts at the Afghan [sic] Analysts Network have noted the expanding power of warlords in Afghanistan’s rural regions” and links to Obaid Ali’s 2013 […]

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Is the Afghan Unity Government a Roadmap for Negotiations With the Taliban?

AAN •

Foreign Policy, 20 October 2014 Very interesting think piece by Barney Rubin, suggesting options how to get a political solution including the Taleban – and not just a ‘deal’ with the Taleban – going again, as part of the constitutional review (over the possible inclusion of the position of a CEO/prime minister). His main and […]

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Afghanistan conflict: Life inside a Taliban stronghold

AAN •

BBC, 20 October 2014 Visit in Taleban-controlled Tangi (-ye Seyyedabad) valley in Wardak province, an area where the insurgency started when the road was paved.

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Haqqani Leaders Detained in Persian Gulf, Not Inside Afghanistan

AAN •

Wall Street Journal, 19 October 2014 The Journal corrects reports that the two Haqqani leaders – Anas Haqqani (a son of Jalaluddin Haqqani) and Hafiz Rashid (brother of one of the Guantanamo Five released earlier this year in exchange against US Taleban captive Bowe Bergdahl) – were not arrested in Afghanistan but “in Bahrain by […]

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From ‘Slavers’ to ‘Warlords’: Descriptions of Afghanistan’s Uzbeks in western writing

Christian Bleuer •

From the early 1800s to the present day, western writers have explored Afghanistan either in person or from a distance, their publications providing a view of Afghanistan’s governments and people to the wider audience in Europe, the United States and the west. However, this view is distorted in many ways. One noticeable case in this […]

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Afghans [in Nimruz] living under shadow of Iranian guns

AAN •

al-.Jazeera, 15 October 2014 Iran’s ambivalent role in the southwestern Afghan province, between humanitarian work and cultural dominance. And it is building a wall against drugs and other smugglers, too.

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The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (10): Bagram closing: Lawyers worried about ‘ghost detainees’ (an update)

Kate Clark •

Pakistani lawyers have told AAN they fear that when the United States closes its detention facility at Bagram at the end of the year, there may still be ‘ghost detainees’, men whose names, identities – and fate – remains unknown to the outside world. Since the earliest days of the war, the United States has […]

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Writings and Statements of Ashraf Ghani

AAN •

The Afghanistan Analyst (blog), 7 October 2014 Useful link list to the new president’s earlier publications, including “Closing the Sovereignty Gap – an approach to state-building”, “A Ten-Year Framework for Afghanistan” (the basis of his 2009 presidential campaign) and his 1982 dissertation.

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