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A Lot to Worry About: Pakistan on the Eve of Elections

The election in Pakistan on 11 May 2013 is just around the corner – but it has not drawn much attention in international media. A new AAN Briefing Paper by Ann Wilkens, ‘A Lot to Worry About: Pakistan on the Eve of Its First Democratic Transition’, who is a member of AAN’s Advisory Board, looks […]

7 May 2013 Ann Wilkens • Special Reports

Before Pakistan’s Election: “The democratic process needs more time”

Simultaneous with the publication of our new briefing paper about the Pakistani parliamentary election next week, we publish a blog based on an email interview with its author, Ann Wilkens, a former Swedish Ambassador to Pakistan and Afghanistan. She says that the election may result in a shift from centre-left to centre-right although its outcome […]

7 May 2013 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

Adding the Ballot to the Bullet? Hezb-e Islami in transition

In a dramatic change of mind, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar recently announced that his Hezb-e Islami will participate in next year’s election to ‘defeat the enemy’ in the political arena, too. With this statement, he is relinquishing his original position that foreign troops must leave the country prior to any political accommodation between his party and the […]

6 May 2013 Borhan Osman • Political Landscape

Legalities of the Post-2014 Landscape: The US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement

By 1 May 2013, the United States and Afghanistan should have finalised a Bilateral Security Agreement and associated Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for governing a post-2014 US military deployment. There is, as yet, no sign yet of any deal. These new agreements are supposed to supersede the Status of Forces Agreement ratified in May […]

1 May 2013 Kate Clark • International Engagement

Over-promising, Under-delivering: The Outcome of the Afghanistan Conference in Kazakhstan

The third Afghanistan-focussed ‘Heart of Asia’, also known as Istanbul Process, ministerial conference came to an end on 26 April 2013 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. At least three issues stood out: (1) the growing importance the Afghan government attaches to the regional initiative towards and after 2014, (2) the major conflicts involving some of the prominent […]

30 Apr 2013 S Reza Kazemi • International Engagement

Militia Disbandment and Peace Building: AAN republication of a 2008 paper

Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) was the name of a crucial programme in the post-Taleban years in Afghanistan that ran from 2006 to 2011. As the successor to the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Reintegration (DDR) programme, it was designed to disband those remaining armed groups in the areas of the country not covered by DDR […]

28 Apr 2013 Barbara Stapleton • Special Reports

What exactly is the CIA doing in Afghanistan? Proxy militias and two airstrikes in Kunar

AAN has discovered that the NATO airstrike on Kunar on 13 April 2013 which killed as many as 17 civilians was the second strike on almost the same location to have been requested by the same mixed Afghan/CIA force. President Karzai’s spokesman has reported the president’s assertion – and anger – that the Afghan unit […]

28 Apr 2013 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Passing the Electoral Law: Four Controversies Down, Seven More to Go

The Wolesi Jirga has started to tackle the Electoral Law and is now going through the remaining controversial articles. The discussions so far have included shouting matches and near-fights, providing a taste of what may still come, particularly as the session inches towards what held the Parliament hostage for weeks in 2008: the issue of […]

26 Apr 2013 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

A New Round of Anti-Sherzai Protests In Nangarhar

In a five day-long protest in the Nangarhar provincial centre of Jalalabad, thousands of demonstrators have demanded the immediate dismissal of governor Gul Agha Sherzai for alleged involvement in corruption, embezzlement of development funds, illegal land grabs and for failing to protect Afghan territory from Pakistani inroads. The protestors were led, among others, by MP […]

25 Apr 2013 Fabrizio Foschini • Obaid Ali • Political Landscape

Afghanistan Conference in Kazakhstan: Will the ‘Heart of Asia’ Start Throbbing?

The ‘Heart of Asia’ process that was launched in November 2011 in Turkey aims to galvanise regional co-operation for security and development in Afghanistan and its near and extended neighbourhood. Approximately a year and a half has passed, with a hard-to-track number of conferences and meetings. The latest is to take place on 26 April […]

25 Apr 2013 S Reza Kazemi • International Engagement