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Afghanistan’s business elite has its own election

Last month Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce, the ACCI, elected its new leadership. The process was not without controversy. A lively pre-election trade in ACCI membership cards allowed large numbers of underage children and people who had nothing to do with running a business to participate in the vote at the provincial level. And at the […]

23 Nov 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Economy, Development, Environment

Afghanistan’s Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency

Despite representing the bulk of Afghanistan’s post-2001 policing, the paramilitary dimension of the Afghan police has received little attention among analysts. In AAN’s latest report, ‘Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency’, Antonio Giustozzi and Mohammad Isaqzadeh describe the origin and development of paramilitary policing in Afghanistan, and explore what this means for the […]

22 Nov 2011 Antonio Giustozzi • Mohammad Isaqzadeh • Special Reports

Sugar trapped on the Silk Road

For many observers of Afghanistan, local and foreigner, Pakistan has become, through the years, an indispensable part of the political equation, its image increasingly darkened by the spread of conflict to its own territory and because of the the charge of interference in the Afghan conflict. Pakistan itself, its politics, society and economy, and especially […]

21 Nov 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • Economy, Development, Environment

Traditional Loya Jirga 3: lacklustre political theatre (amended)

The Traditional Loya Jirga (TLJ) is over, after a drab last day in which President Karzai got his public backing for signing a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with the United States. However, it was clear to all watching the proceedings on television that the discussion had hardly been lively and the results tightly controlled. The […]

19 Nov 2011 Kate Clark • Political Landscape

Traditional Loya Jirga 2: Not Sellers of the nation – but lions! (amended)

President Hamed Karzai flew in by helicopter the few kilometres from his palace to the site of the ‘Traditional Loya Jirga’. He said later in his speech that he had been impressed to see just how much Kabul had grown and developed. He arrived to give the opening speech of the jirga to the two […]

16 Nov 2011 Kate Clark • Political Landscape

Innovative Jirga-ism 2 or: The rule of bending the law

The 2030 jirga delegates have come into town now, and their sessions are to start today (Wednesday). Interestingly enough, it had been unclear until recently, at least to some people, how exactly the event was called they are to attend. This has repercussions to which authorities the meeting will have exactly – an issue still […]

16 Nov 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Traditional Loya Jirga 1: Why the Jirga?

More than two thousand delegates have gathered in Kabul for the ‘Traditional Loya Jirga’. Business in the Afghan capital has stopped, the major east-west arteries have been blocked, check points set up all over and at least some of those living near the site itself are in lock-down. The jirga is to discuss two items: […]

15 Nov 2011 Kate Clark • Political Landscape

Guest Blog: The Recovery of Afghanistan’s Regional Music

For some years, the Afghan music scene has been dominated by a new fast dance style which uses keyboards and other western instruments and developed in the Afghan diaspora at a time when music in Afghanistan itself was under extreme pressure. It looked like the new pop music was flourishing at the expense of the […]

15 Nov 2011 John Baily • Context and Culture

Berlin, 23 November 2011: Boell Foundation Afghanistan conference with AAN participation

‘Zehn Jahre nach Petersberg: Wo steht Afghanistan heute?’ (Ten Years after Petersberg: Where does Afghanistan stand today?) is the title of a one-day conference of the German Heinrich Boell Foundation, part of the run-up to the international Bonn 2 conference on 5 December. AAN’s Advisory Board Chairman Francesc Vendrell and AAN’s Thomas Ruttig will be […]

14 Nov 2011 AAN • admin • Events

2001 Ten Years On (2): Getting Home to Kabul

While Kabul was falling to the Northern Alliance ten years ago, a young Kabuli journalist found himself in the Taleban heartland of Kandahar trying to get home. He had to head against the tide of Taleban fighters who were all streaming southwards. Our guest blogger, Shoaib Sharifi, said that everyone feared for their lives as […]

13 Nov 2011 Shoaib Sharifi • War and Peace