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Afghan Exodus: Notes from a Belgrade squat

The number of migrants, many of them Afghan, in Serbia has been steadily growing in the second half of 2016. More people continue to arrive, while departures have largely stagnated due to Hungary and Croatia tightening their border controls. As a result, Serbia is faced with a growing number of people on its soil who […]

30 Nov 2016 Martine van Bijlert • Jelena Bjelica • Migration

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Afghanistan’s Uncertain Future: Fragmented Realities and Geopolitical Fault Lines Afghanistan’s political landscape can be characterized as a patchwork of contending ethnic factions and ever-shifting alliances. The security situation in Afghanistan remains extremely fluid and the insurgency shows no signs of abating. Afghanistan finds itself in the midst of a modern version of the historical Great […]

29 Nov 2016 admin • Events

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the new US administration’s possible approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. (November, 2016)

The first episode of the Gandhara Podcast about the new US administration’s possible approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan, with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, Woodrow Wilson School’s Michael Kugelmann, Gandhara’s Abu Bakr Siddique and host Muhammad Taher.  

28 Nov 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts

AAN’s Thomas Ruttig discusses ‘Hopes and Realities in Afghanistan’ at The Peace Research Institute Oslo (September, 2016)

Afghanistan has received less attention by the international community after the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014. However, an increasing conflict level and civilian casualties, internal differences in the government, the presence of ISIS in the country and the thousands of Afghan refugees coming to Europe has put Afghanistan firmly back on the agenda. Afghanistan […]

28 Nov 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts

Carnage in Ghor: Was Islamic State the perpetrator or was it falsely accused? 

The Islamic State, holed up in a few districts in eastern Afghanistan, has suddenly popped up in a faraway western province, Ghor – at least according to provincial officials. They blamed IS for the massacre in October 2016 of more than 30 civilians. Digging deeper into the incident, AAN’s Borhan Osman found that the IS […]

23 Nov 2016 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

Post-Presidential Karzai: Still a challenge to the NUG?

Hamid Karzai may have handed over the reigns of power in September 2014, but his influence on Afghanistan’s politics did not end. His calls for a Loya Jirga, as the National Unity Government approached its two-year anniversary, represented a danger to that government. However, political groups and influential individuals, even those who had previously been […]

21 Nov 2016 Ali Yawar Adili • Political Landscape

Parliament Kicks Out Ministers Again: A multi-dimensional power struggle

The Afghan parliament’s lower house has sacked seven ministers in a new wave of interpellations (estizah). It is not clear who instigated the estizah motions, MPs themselves or Palace intrigue, or who will come out as the winner (the president has told the ministers to stay in their posts and called on the Supreme Court […]

19 Nov 2016 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

One Step Closer to War Crime Trials? New ICC report on Afghanistan

The International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor has said it will “imminently” be taking a decision on whether to request authorisation from judges to commence an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. The Taleban could be investigated, among other offences, for murder and intentionally attacking civilians, while Afghan government forces, and the US military […]

17 Nov 2016 Ehsan Qaane • Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

“People That Hate Us”: What can Afghans expect from President Trump?

If Hillary Clinton had won Tuesday’s race for the White House, the world would now have a good sense of who her top officials would be and what her foreign policy would look like. With a Secretary of State-turned-president, Afghanistan could have expected business to carry on pretty much as normal. With Donald Trump coming […]

11 Nov 2016 Kate Clark • Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement

Kafka in Cuba: New AAN report on the Afghan experience in Guantánamo

A major new report from AAN’s Kate Clark looks at the Afghan experience in Guantanamo, where a quarter of the total number of detainees held were Afghan, the largest national group. The report takes a ‘deep dive’ into the cases of eight of the longest-serving Afghan detainees. Five are still in Cuba, while three were […]

3 Nov 2016 Kate Clark • Special Reports