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Afghanistan’s Parliament or How to Hold on to Your Seat

Parliament has decided to postpone its regular recess. It was supposed to start today, but the Parliamentarians just don’t want to go yet. They spent most of their last session discussing how they hadn’t properly started their work and how they wouldn’t be able to face their constituents if they went home. And that they […]

6 Jun 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Towards a More United Voice of Afghan Civil Society: Step Two

During the last week of May a delegation of Afghan civil society activists visited Italy in a follow-up to the Kabul conference of two months ago, by the title ‘Promoting Dialogue and Peace in Afghanistan: Strengthening Afghan Civil Society’. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini followed to Rome the members of the steering committee composed of several Afghan […]

5 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • International Engagement

AAN Reads: The Soviets in Afghanistan, In Their Narrative

Rodric Braithwaite’s ‘Afgantsy’ has already deservedly been widely praised for its Soviet and Russian sources-based account of the Soviet intervention years in Afghanistan. AAN’s Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig joins in, but finds that Artemy Kalinovsky’s ‘The Long Goodbye’ is a more than worthy addition on this issue. Rodric Braithwaite’s book has already deservedly been reviewed […]

3 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

The Enteqal Seven (4): Herat, the Seeds of Fear

Herat was a logical choice for the transition: rich, cultivated, well-connected, Herat makes the kind of city that can stand on its own feet without much effort. But of course, transition comes with a price. As it seems more and more apparent, the insurgents are keen on targeting these new would-be symbols of success for […]

2 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • International Engagement

Kill or Capture 3: When the International Military Says ‘Sorry’

President Karzai has said he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses because they are causing too many civilian casualties. The president’s ultimatum follows the pictures shown on Afghan TV on 29 May of distraught villagers in Helmand carrying the bruised and dusty corpses of their small children who had been killed in an […]

31 May 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace

The Killing Continues – the Taloqan attack (Updated)

The impact of yesterday’s suicide attack in Takhar, which killed the police commander of the northern zone General Daud and six others, is wide ranging. The international security forces and those counting on a smooth transition have lost an important partner. The Jamiat-based networks have lost a battlefield commander. The (northern) youth have lost a […]

29 May 2011 Martine van Bijlert • War and Peace

The Enteqal Seven (3): Lashkargah – Southern Poster Child for Transition

The choice of Lashkargah as one of the first areas to be transferred into Afghan security responsibility was a surprise but can be explained: It is to give credence to the fulsome ISAF reports and certain sections of the media that peace, hope, and stability are just around the corner in this troubled corner of […]

27 May 2011 Jen Mackenzie • War and Peace

Afghanistan’s not-so-hermetic rural-urban divide

Rural vs urban areas, traditionalists vs modernists, Kabul vs the mountains – these are only a few of many simplifications that are used to explain Afghanistan. Such simplifications are repeated so often that they affect political decision making, to the detriment of those Afghans who support reform, argues AAN Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig. He advocates […]

26 May 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Walking the Kabul Wall, Looking into History

From the roof of one of the newest buildings in Kabul, the AAN office, you can see the oldest surviving, above-ground structure in the Afghan capital, the Kabul Wall. It snakes along the Sher Darwaza mountain, now green after the spring rains. AAN Senior Analyst, Kate Clark tells some stories from the Wall: of spring […]

25 May 2011 Kate Clark • Context and Culture

Kill or Capture 2: Another Takhar Night Raid Fans Ethnic Discontent

The repercussions of a night raid by US Special Forces and Afghan police, which left two men, a woman and a girl dead in Takhar a week ago (whether they were civilians or insurgents, depends on whose version of events you believe) are still being played out. The provincial council has gone on strike in […]

25 May 2011 Kate Clark • War and Peace