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26-28 March 2010, Bonn: Conference ‘Who Are the Taliban?’

The conference jointly organized by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Afghanistan (Afghanistan Working Group of German academia) and Evangelische Akademie im Rheinland is designed to shed light on the background of the Taleban phenomenon. The main presentations (in German) are given by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (‘Organisational Structures of the Afghan Taleban’) and Jochen Hippler (‘Pakistan’s Taleban’) For more information […]

20 Mar 2010 AAN • admin • Events

The AfPak Strategy: Reactions in Pakistan

Viewing Pakistan in a historical and geostrategic context, this paper by eminent Pakistan and India expert Karl Fischer highlights those aspects of the new United States strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan (formerly termed ‘the AfPak Strategy’) that are more relevant for Pakistan and shows predominant Pakistani reactions to these issues. The selection is limited to […]

9 Mar 2010 Karl Fischer • Special Reports

Days of the Living Dead

I have just returned home after three weeks in Afghanistan doing research in Kabul and Kandahar on a forthcoming report for AAN on local defence forces. I’m just starting to work on the paper, but perhaps a few quick facts that I came across during my research might be of interest to readers of the […]

9 Mar 2010 Mathieu Lefevre • Political Landscape

New troops too late for Badghis?

Inactive foreign troops and gross human rights violations with an ethnic bias have made the population of Badghis ‘poor, fed up and completely alienated from the government’, an ideal breeding ground for the Taleban and an eight-fold increase of poppy cultivation. A rare glimpse into one of the most neglected provinces of Afghanistan. By Mònica […]

7 Mar 2010 Monica Bernabe • War and Peace

How ‘neo’ were the ‘Neo-Taleban’?

Since the Taleban’s quick resurgence after the fall of their regime in 2001, their insurgency often is described with the term ‘Neo-Taleban’. Here it is argued, though, that there was more continuity than change from the pre-9/11 to the post-9/11 Taleban movement. The real ‘neo-Taleban’ might emerge now – after the arrest of accommodation-inclined Taleban […]

5 Mar 2010 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Pakistan in 2010

While the world is discussing strategies to exit Afghanistan, the crisis in neighbouring Pakistan is deepening. What the silent majority of Pakistanis voted for in the elections of February 2008 – a secular democracy – is proving elusive. The army has since reemerged as a major political actor and the Taleban are gaining ground. This […]

4 Mar 2010 Ann Wilkens • Special Reports

Political Parties in Re-Registration

On Monday, the six-month’s deadline for a re-registration of Afghanistan’s 110 registered political parties is ending. This is based on requirements of the new political parties law passed by the parliament in June 2009 already. After some back and forth between the executive and the legislative which led to some amendments in detail, the President […]

4 Mar 2010 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Don’t Call That Warlord a Warlord

In Afghanistan, some feel insulted when they are called a ‘warlord’. Some rather call them, euphemistically, ‘local power brokers’ or ‘strongmen’. The author of this blog thinks that the term still is useful – but that it should not be used randomly and proposes a sharper definition. By Antonio Giustozzi. This blog first appeared on […]

4 Mar 2010 Antonio Giustozzi • War and Peace

Finding Kabir

Arresting the former deputy ‚prime minister‘ of the Taleban apparently needed less than rocket science. Pakistani intelligence sources also confirm that the arrests of Maulawi Kabir and Mulla Baradar foremost serve Pakistani interests, both with regard to urgently needed financial resources and possibly to the strengthening of an old ally, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. A guest blog […]

3 Mar 2010 Willi Germund • War and Peace

Some Birds with One Stone

Pakistan is establishing a new Taleban leadership that is more aggressive, less inclined to talk and primarily follows the instructions of its ISI minders, says Christoph Reuter(1). With this aim, it manipulates different leaders of militant groups, using targeted arrests and ‘invitations’ into ‘guesthouses’. When it became known on 16 Februar that the number three […]

2 Mar 2010 Christopher Reuter • War and Peace