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On Your Marks! Alliances and actors before the 2014 presidential election

Yesterday, 16 September 2013, the three-week period for registering candidates for the April 2014 presidential election started. The field of contenders will only have become clear, though, by the last day, 6 October 2013. Alliance building and political manoeuvring is continuing, as the two major camps – the supporters of President Karzai and a new opposition alliance – […]

17 Sep 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Football Victory II: A night and a day of celebrations

It was a burst of massive happiness, a moment of sheer bliss and pride, something few Afghans have experienced much of in the past and thus even more powerful: only moments after Afghanistan won the South Asian Football Federation Championship, defeating India with 2:0, waves of people filled the streets of Kabul and many other […]

12 Sep 2013 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Football Victory I: Lions beating Tigers – the match report

The jubilation of football players who have just won a cup final is similar the world over, but neither Bayern Munich, who won this year’s European Champions League, or Spain, who won the last World Cup, celebrated as the Afghan national team did in Nepal last night. They danced wildly, threw their manager in the air […]

12 Sep 2013 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Thematic Dossier II: Football in Afghanistan

Tonight (11 September 2013) Afghanistan is playing in the South Asian Football Cup Final, facing India in a match starting at 17.00 Kabul time. Soccer is quickly becoming a favorite in Afghanistan, both as a sport played by the youth and as a passion for the public watching it on television at home. After an […]

11 Sep 2013 Fabrizio Foschini • Dossiers

End of a Peace Process? Pressure on Islamist party undermines Tajik post-civil war consensus

Tajikistan’s government is cracking down on the main opposition party, the Islamist IRPT. Some say this is just part of a pre-election campaign (the country is to elect its president in November); others see longer-term implications that could jeopardise the 1997 peace agreement that still shapes the country’s political reality. The IRPT – the only […]

9 Sep 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

Back to Bad: Chahrdara between Taleban and ALP – a district case study

Chahrdara, an embattled district in Kunduz province, is a miniature model for all of Afghanistan’s larger conflicts. Traditionally a hotbed of the insurgency, military interventions could never bring lasting change, so Chahrdara – under heavy foreign siege in 2010 (1) – is back to where it was: a Taleban stronghold in the north. At the same […]

6 Sep 2013 Lola Cecchinel • War and Peace

Daudzai In – and Out: Pre-election cabinet reshuffles

Within two days, President Hamed Karzai has changed two of his key cabinet posts: Muhammad Omar Daudzai was appointed acting interior minister on 1 September 2013, one day after Rahmatullah Nabil became acting head of the Afghan intelligence service. AAN’s Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig looks at the implications and predicts that, with the registration of […]

3 Sep 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

The Other Side of the Amu Darya: Tajik and Afghans, neighbours apart

Despite pushes from the West and economic needs, Afghan-Central Asian economic cooperation has not taken off, yet. The people of Tajikistan, for example, are not very interested in or even prejudiced towards their southern neighbours, as they concentrate on their troubles with their former Uzbek brothers. The Tajik government and the other more or less authoritarian […]

1 Sep 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

Narrower Than Expected: Political opposition presents “Electoral Union of Afghanistan”

Today, 29 August 2013, a coalition of powerful groups and opposition parties, dominated by Northern powerbrokers, came forward and announced their “electoral union.” It could have been one of the first real political happenings in the wheeling and dealing before the presidential election of April 2014. Instead it was a surprisingly uninspired and chaotic event. […]

29 Aug 2013 Gran Hewad • Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

What came out of the Peace Talks in Islamabad? An Afghan and a Pakistani take

Did the Afghan-Pakistani peace talks in Islamabad over the past two days yield results to speak of? There were surprisingly positive moments – moments that justified the hope pinned on this trip. Then again, listening in closer to the concluding statements of the Pakistani Prime Minister and the Afghan President, both leaders seemed to be […]

28 Aug 2013 Reza Rumi • War and Peace