Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: August 2015

Afghanische Taliban auf dem Vormarsch: Der zweite Verlust von Musa Qala

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung, 31 August 2015 Guest article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the fall and recapture of symbolic Musa Qala district in Helmand. Behind it he sees a (continued) Taleban strategy to slowly gain territory  in peripheral areas and lead a war of attrition, hoping that the government comes under pressure with the shrinking of external aid.

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Fredshoppet borta – nu blir IS starkare

AAN •

Dagens Nyheter, 27 August 2015 AAN’s Kate Clark is quoted in the Swedish daily  as saying: Vad har då talibanerna för motiv till att återgå till våldet? Kate Clark, tidigare BBC-korrespondent i Afghanistan och numera anställd på det Kabulbaserade analysföretaget Afghanistan Analysts Network, lutar åt att upptrappningen är ett försök att visa styrka utåt och […]

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Photo: Christine Roehrs 2015

Economic Management in Afghanistan: What worked, what didn’t, and why?

Bill Byrd •

Afghanistan’s past experience with economic management has seen both notable successes and salient failures. A new paper for AAN by Bill Byrd, a former head of the World Bank in Afghanistan (currently a senior expert with the US Institute of Peace), reviews several economic policies during the period 2002-2014. It points to important lessons for Afghanistan’s […]

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Economic Management in Afghanistan: Thoughts on what worked, what didn’t and why

AAN •

The Afghan government and its international partners will meet in Kabul next month at the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) to review progress since last December’s London Conference and to discuss specific reform programs for the future. Discussions are complicated by the fact that Afghanistan’s economy remains weak and its fiscal situation dire. In the deliberations on […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Too Few, Badly Paid And Unmotivated: The teacher crisis and the quality of education in Afghanistan

Qayoom Suroush • Christine Roehrs •

The progress in the education sector has been reported widely as one of the success stories of the national international efforts in Afghanistan since 2002. However, this narrative omits severe problems – one is that the teachers who are supposed to facilitate the rapid growth of the sector are still often ill-trained, ill-equipped, badly paid, […]

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How Assassination Sold Drugs and Promoted Terrorism / The Kingpin strategy

Martine van Bijlert •

TomDispatch.com, 28 April 2015 An fascinating, slightly older post (its contents were raised in this recent blogpost by Gary Owens) by Andrew Cockburn on the so-called Kingpin strategy. This node-centric approach has its roots in the drug wars and underlies the expanding US counterinsurgency targeting campaigns. It also turns out to have had the exact opposite effect as intended — as found by Rex […]

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‘아프간 IS’, 머지않았다? (Will ‘Afghan IS’ be the dominant force in the country?)

Thomas Ruttig •

Hankyoreh 21, 19 August 2015 The South Korean journal gives an appraisal of the security situation in Afghanistan, with quotes from AAN’s Thomas Ruttig. Apart from the IS, the triple bombs in Kabul and the peace process after Mullah Omar’s death are scrutinised.  

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The expedition after their arrival in Kabul, with Hentig (seated, 2nd from left) and Niedermayer (seated 3rd from l.). Photo from: Niedermayer's book, In der Glutsonne Irans.

Afghanistan in World War I (2): “England must lose India” – Afghanistan as a German bridgehead

Thomas Ruttig •

100 years ago and a good year after the outbreak of World War I, a German political-military mission crossed the border into Afghanistan on the night of 19 to the 20 August 1915. Oskar Ritter von Niedermayer and Werner Otto von Hentig, a Bavarian military officer and a Prussian diplomat, both with Persian experience, led the […]

Context and Culture Read more

Strengthening Taliban

Thomas Ruttig •

Kashmir Watch, 18 August 2015 In this article-cum-opinion piece, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted: ‘The attacks on Friday, which included a massive truck bomb in a heavily populated civilian area and a suicide attack on a police academy, were some of the most serious in months and the first in Kabul since the Taliban named […]

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Afghan Vice President Raises Concerns by Turning to Militias in Taliban Fight

Martine van Bijlert •

New York Times, 18 August 2015 NYT’s Mujib Mashal takes a closer look at how deteriorating security in North Afghanistan prompted Vice President Dostum to activate a collection of local militias and to open a command centre in his pink palace in Shiberghan. “Partly because of pressures from President Ashraf Ghani, government officials said, Mr. […]

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Rampant Taliban, cowering Kabul

Thomas Ruttig •

Daily Times, 17 August 2015 Another quote in an opinion piece in a Pakistani daily of AAN’s Thomas Ruttig – under a headline that seems to be lopsided: If Mansoor is “playing to his own audience and trying to consolidate his position”, as Thomas Ruttig of the Afghan Analysts Network believes, the Taliban insurgency will […]

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Who Controls the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan?

AAN •

The Diplomat, 15 August 2015 Listen to a podcast of a discussion that includes AAN’s Obaid Ali. , assistant country director and researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, to discuss the increased activity of insurgents in northern Afghanistan. Ali notes a number of reasons for increased Taliban activity in Kunduz province, including less support from the […]

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