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Elections and Foreigners: An analysis of recent Taleban violence

The Taleban have again warned Afghans not to take part in Saturday’s elections, saying they would be attacking election centres and targeting “all parts of the country”. Earlier they warned they would be using “all force” at their disposal to disrupt the “upcoming sham elections”. Kabul has seen two ‘spectacular’ attacks against election-related targets in the […]

3 Apr 2014 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Afghan Youth for Democracy? Not all of them

Many observers are looking with hope at the progress in terms of education of Afghan youth and often describe it as a safeguard of democracy during the political transitions ahead. This, however, means painting Afghan youth with an all–too-broad brush and closing eyes to undercurrents that try to undermine further democratisation, says AAN’s Borhan Osman. […]

2 Apr 2014 Borhan Osman • Political Landscape

What to Watch in the Elections (1): Voter registration

Elections in Afghanistan can be overwhelming, surreal and utterly confusing, even for those who have followed the politics of the country for a long time. To bring those who were not here during previous elections up to speed, and to remind those who may have forgotten the details of what it was like, AAN’s Martine […]

1 Apr 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

What to Watch in the Elections (2): Polling station lists

Elections in Afghanistan can be overwhelming, surreal and utterly confusing, even for those who have followed the politics of the country for a long time. To bring those who were not here during previous elections up to speed, and to remind those who may have forgotten the details of what it was like, AAN’s Martine […]

1 Apr 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

What to Watch in the Elections (3): Polling day, fraud and irregularities

Elections in Afghanistan can be overwhelming, surreal and utterly confusing, even for those who have followed the politics of the country for a long time. To bring those who were not here during previous elections up to speed, and to remind those who may have forgotten the details of what it was like, AAN’s Martine […]

1 Apr 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

What to Watch in the Elections (4): The count, the complaints and the result

Elections in Afghanistan can be overwhelming, surreal and utterly confusing, even for those who have followed the politics of the country for a long time. To bring those who were not here during previous elections up to speed, and to remind those who may have forgotten the details of what it was like, AAN’s Martine […]

1 Apr 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

External publication (in German): Militarisierung der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (The Militarisation of Aid)

Afghanistan Info (Neuchâtel), March 2014 (not online) Thomas Ruttig, “Militarisierung der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit: Der jüngste Afghanistan-Krieg als Auslöser eines Besorgnis erregenden Trend” (Militarisation of Development Cooperation: The recent Afghanistan war as trigger of a concerning trend), Afghanistan Info, Neuchâtel, no. 74 (March 2014), pp 8-9. Issue no 74 of the publication of the Swiss Committee for the Support of […]

31 Mar 2014 Thomas Ruttig • External publications

What the Polls Tell Us About the Afghan Presidential Election

Is it possible to predict the upcoming Afghan elections on the basis of polling data? There are severe methodological challenges in collecting accurate survey data in a country like Afghanistan, and, given how young the country’s democracy is, not much past data on how well those predictions turned out. But surveys during the 2009 presidential […]

31 Mar 2014 Matthieu Aikins • Political Landscape

Enough with the Killing of Civilians! The Serena attack and the civil society response

The war is getting dirtier, writes Susanne Schmeidl, member of and guest contributor to AAN, looking at the Serena attack and its victims, particularly the women and children. We have to assume that everything and everybody is fair game in the Taleban’s fight against – “well, against what?” she asks, and “for whom?” Schmeidl gives […]

28 Mar 2014 Susanne Schmeidl • Rights and Freedoms

Can the Taleban outwrestle the government? An assessment of the insurgency’s military capability

The Taleban are poised to bounce back and threaten the Afghan state once foreign troops withdraw – this is the kind of doomsday scenario one hears these days as foreign troops prepare to depart. Recent statistics have shown that 2013 was at least as violent as 2011, the previous record year for attacks and casualties. However, […]

25 Mar 2014 Borhan Osman • War and Peace