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Zero or Zero Plus? US-Afghan negotiations over the war

Presidents Obama and Karzai are due to start the wrangling over their countries’ post-2014 military relationship during the Afghan president’s current visit to Washington. US soldiers, bases, training, equipment, money, immunity all need to be hammered out, although no-one is expecting results just yet. Figures floated in recent days by US government and military officials […]

11 Jan 2013 Kate Clark • War and Peace

E-tazkera: relieving pre-election tension or adding to the confusion?

One of the ideas to prevent fraud and ensure fairness in future elections is the accelerated introduction of electronic identity cards to Afghanistan. According to the Ministry of Interior it will take at least a decade until all Afghans have the planned new identity cards, but proponents of the e-tazkera believe the project can still […]

7 Jan 2013 Obaid Ali • Political Landscape

6 January 2013: AAN author Thomas Ruttig in Spanish Review

‘Cómo empezó todo: Un breve repaso a los orígenes de los conflictos en Afganistán anteriores a 1979’ (How It All Began: An Introduction into the pre-1979 origins of Afghanistan’s Conflicts) is an article by AAN co-director an senior analyst Thomas Ruttig written for issue 119 of the Spanish review ‘PAPELES de relaciones ecosociales y cambio […]

6 Jan 2013 AAN • admin • Events

Speaking Out for Justice: An Initial Victory for Women Victims of Violence

Recently Afghan TV channels and news agencies have reported on an increasing number of cases of violence against women around the country. Only in the two first weeks of December at least four cases of murder were discussed in the media. In reaction to the violent incidents, civil society organizations and women’s rights activists started […]

6 Jan 2013 Wazhma Samandary • Rights and Freedoms

Qatar, Islamabad, Chantilly, Ashgabad: Taleban Talks Season Again? (amended)

There has again been movement in the positions marking the landscape of ‘reconciliation’ or, more precisely, of contacts and possible negotiations with the Taleban seem to be moving again. A track II meeting, labelled as ‘intra-Afghan’ talks, was held in France and, before that, the so-called ‘HPC roadmap’ leaked, indicating a more active role of […]

31 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

The ‘Afghanistan 1400’ Movement: Changing Youth Politics in Afghanistan?

Afghanistan 1400, a new civic-political youth organisation, recently declared its existence in what is, in practice, a scattered and largely manipulated youth landscape in Afghanistan. Established by a number of highly educated and diverse young people, the group pursues an ambitious and forward-looking agenda of contributing to the emergence of a ‘prosperous and democratic Afghanistan’ […]

30 Dec 2012 S Reza Kazemi • Political Landscape

Cómo empezó todo: Un breve repaso a los orígenes de los conflictos en Afganistán anteriores a 1979 (How It All Began: An Introduction into the pre-1979 origins of Afghanistan’s Conflicts)

Papeles de relaciones ecosociales y cambio global. (Número 119), Madrid For most people, it was the Soviet invasion over Christmas 1979 that put Afghanistan on the political map again after many decades. But the origins of the internationalised Afghanistan conflict, currently in its 33rd year and often explained through a Cold War perspective only, goes […]

26 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • External publications

Text of Speech Enunciated by Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan at a Research Conference in France

This was used as an annexe to the AAN report “Qatar, Islamabad, Chantilly, Ashgabad: Taleban Talks Season Again?” Monday, 10 Safar 1434 Monday, 24 December 2012 08:16 The full text of speech enunciated by two representatives from Political Office of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mawlawi Shahbuddin Dilawar and Doctor Muhammad Naeem, at research conference in […]

24 Dec 2012 Taleban and related documents

The Refugees and the Christmas Tree: Afghan Asylum Seekers Protest in Berlin

German asylum law has been under fire from human rights campaigners for years, for what its critics call the unfair limitations imposed on refugees. Only in July this year, the German Constitutional Court threw out the German government’s current provisions for social services for refugees as ‘evidently insufficient’ and unconstitutional because they are under the […]

24 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • Migration

Protecting Freedom at the Hindukush: Source of Famous Afghanistan Quote Dies

On Wednesday, former German defence minister Peter Struck died, he who coined the controversial sentence that Germany’s security needs to be defended even ‘at the Hindukush’. Almost no other statement has shaped the Afghanistan-related discussion in Germany like this one. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks back at this debate and finds it being more of a […]

20 Dec 2012 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement