Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: October 2014

"Resolute Support" follows "Help and Cooperation"; the new mission will need a new logo. Photo: AAN

Three Birds with One Stone: Signing the BSA and NATO SOFA to project reliability

Kate Clark • Thomas Ruttig •

By signing long-delayed security agreements with the US and NATO on the second day of its existence (30 September 2014), the new Afghan leadership has hit at least three birds with one stone. It has projected an image of itself as reliable to Afghans and to its international partners, and it has secured an important […]

International Engagement Read more

Kundus – ein Jahr nach dem Bundeswehr-Abzug

Thomas Ruttig •

ZDF (heute.de), 5 October 2014 In a report on its website, the prime time news of Germany’s second public TV broadcaster ZDF report on the situation in Kunduz, one year after the Bundeswehr withdrawal from the province. It quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig: “Die Lage ist unübersichtlich. Die Provinz Kundus gehört zu den problematischsten Regionen im […]

AAN in the Media Read more

A Very Happy Eid-e Qurban!

AAN Team •

Here at AAN, we’d like to wish all our readers a very happy Eid-e Qurban and that the upcoming year – and the long-awaited new government – may bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. For those who wish to learn more about Afghan Eid customs, have a look at this report about Eid sacrifices for Eid-e […]

Context and Culture Read more

Cabinet names Kabul Airport after Karzai

AAN •

Pajhwok News Agency, 3 October 2014 In its maiden meeting under President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai’s chairmanship on Thursday, the Cabinet approved naming Kabul International Airport after former president Hamid Karzai. It acted upon a proposal by the Meshrano Jirga, the senate.

Recommended Reads Read more
The US handed over the Afghan side of Bagram eighteen months ago. The newly signed BSA suggests it will be ending foreign detentions too, by the end of the year. (photo: Tolo)

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (9): Bagram prison to close with BSA, 13 foreign detainees left

Kate Clark •

The US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), now officially called the Security and Defence Cooperation Agreement, a copy of which AAN has obtained, says the US shall not “maintain or operate detention facilities in Afghanistan.” It appears then, that the US foreign detention facility at Bagram, often referred to as the ‘other Guantanamo’, will close by […]

International Engagement Read more

New probe into Kabul Bank scandal an ‘important symbolic act’

AAN •

Deutsche Welle (online), 2 October 2014 Interview with AAN’s Martine van Bijlert on new president Ghani’s decree urging the re-opening of the Kabul Bank case. She concludes that: “The big question now is whether the judiciary will indeed treat the case differently than it has done in the past. Which is not just about the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

14-16 Oct 2014, SCA hosting AAN in Sweden

Thomas Ruttig •

On invitation of the prestigious Swedish Committee for Afghanistan – one of the longest engaged NGOs in the country – AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig will be in a number of public events discussing current events and results of the post-2014 international intervention in Afghanistan. They will take place in three Swedish cities, at Lund, Malmö […]

Events Read more

Bottomless Pit: U.S. Balks at Bills for Afghanistan’s Treacherous Salang Tunnel

AAN •

Wall Street Journal, 2 October 2014 The Salang tunnel – the only short link between northern and southern Afghanistan – is crumbling. Millions have been invested, but it needs to be overhauled more seriously, as it is strained by too much traffic (the article fails that it is also the needle’s eye for US and […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Die Staffelstäbe des Hindukusch

Thomas Ruttig •

Voice of Russia, 2 October 2014 In its commentary about the signing of the US-Afghan BSA, the government-owned Russian media outlet (in its German service) picks up an old quote by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig – which remains valid: that the (now continuing) presence of western troops in Afghanistan contains “stabilising and destabilising factors” at the […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Stationierungsabkommen: Soldaten bleiben in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Detektor FM, 1 October 2014 Listen to an interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German) on Cologne-based campus radio, with a first assessment of the US-Afghan security cooperation agreement finally signed by the new government.

AAN in the Media Read more

[IS, die Taleban und Afghanistan]

Thomas Ruttig •

SRF4, 1 October 2014 Listen to an audio file of an interview by Swiss radio (in German, with a direct link) with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, on the relationship between IS and Afghanistan. Main points: there is some IS propaganda activity in Pakistan and Afghanistan but no proven sign of Taleban joining the IS in masses. A […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Afghan first lady in shadow of 1920s queen?

AAN •

al-Jazeera, 1 October 2014 On the (not always pleasant) Afghan debate of Afghanistan’s current first lady, Rula Ghani, with a look back at the role of other leading Afghan women over the decades.  

Recommended Reads Read more

Subscribe to receive updates from the Afghanistan Analysts Network

Sign up