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18 October 2013, Washington: “Afghanistan: Past, Present and Future” with Martine van Bijlert and William Polk

Afghanistan: Past, Present and Future with Martine van Bijlert and William R. Polk Friday, October 18, 2013 2000 M Street NW Conference Room A 3:00pm – 4:30pm  Please join us in a lively discussion on how Afghanistan’s rich history will affect its future with two experts who have over 80 years of combined experience analyzing […]

18 Oct 2013 AAN Team • Events

Guts, Prettily Coiled: A guide to Eid sacrifices

Today is Eid al Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the most important religious holiday in the Afghan calendar. In millions of yards across the country, Afghans will slit the throats of cows or sheep in remembrance of the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail in submission to God’s command and of the lamb which […]

15 Oct 2013 Christine Roehrs • Context and Culture

A Very Happy Eid-e Qurban!

Here at AAN, we’d like to wish all our dear readers a very happy Eid-e Qurban and for Afghanistan peace in the coming year. We marked the last Eid with a celebratory dispatch of ten stories from Afghans on their customs and memories of Eid al-Fitr. Today, we are publishing a report from AAN analyst Christine Roehrs […]

15 Oct 2013 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Not Signed and Sealed Just Yet: Kerry and Karzai’s deal on the Bilateral Security Agreement

The United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, has flown home with the basis of a Bilateral Security Agreement in his pocket, finally thrashed out with President Hamed Karzai. On this depends continuing US and NATO missions after 2014. Negotiations on the deal have been long and painful, AAN senior analyst Kate Clark reports, because […]

14 Oct 2013 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Talebs in Tajikistan? Part 2 on the alleged IMU-Taleban nexus

If one listens to ISAF and to Central Asian governments, there are overlapping networks of jihadist terrorists subverting Afghanistan and Tajikistan, if not the whole region. Few of these reports are substantiated by details that can be independently scrutinised. But they are often picked up by media and other outlets, presented as proven facts and […]

11 Oct 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

Talebs in Tajikistan? The ‘terrorist spill-over’ hype

If one listens to ISAF and to Central Asian governments, there are overlapping networks of jihadist terrorists subverting Afghanistan and Tajikistan, if not the whole region. Those networks, it is said, link the Taleban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) with al-Qaeda and other Pakistan-based groups. Few of these reports are substantiated by details […]

10 Oct 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

12 October 2013, Almaty, Kazakhstan: Thomas Ruttig’s university lecture on “Afghanistan in 2014″

Thomas Ruttig, co-director and senior analyst of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), speaks at the KIMEP University in Kazakhstan’s capital Almaty about “Afghanistan in 2014 – between presidential elections and western troop withdrawal”. At 2:30 pm in Hall 2 of the university’s New Building.

10 Oct 2013 Christine Roehrs • Events

A Leader Apologises: General Dostum, elections and war crimes

For the first time, a senior Afghan has made a public apology to those of his compatriots who suffered during the war. General Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the largely Uzbek Jombesh party / ex military faction, made the statement a day after registering as running mate to Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in the presidential elections. […]

8 Oct 2013 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

The Last Minute Frenzy of Afghanistan’s Candidate Registration

The registration for Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential election continued until the very late hours of 6 October 2013. Although it was to be expected that the political horse-trading and deal-making would continue until the last minute, the scramble that finally ensued took everybody by surprise and mixed up all electoral alliances that had been forged in the weeks before. The AAN team […]

6 Oct 2013 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Thematic Dossier III: What Past Elections Teach Us

Afghanistan is getting ready for its fifth election in ten years. For those who have gone through the previous rounds there is an immense sense of déjà vu. So before embarking on a new round of intense reporting, we decided to look back at the work already done – most of which is as relevant now, as […]

5 Oct 2013 Martine van Bijlert • Dossiers