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A Bridge for the Taleban? Harakat, a former mujahedin party, leaps back into action

Harakat-e Inqilab-e Islami, one of the formerly most important mujahedin parties (tanzim) that had kept a low profile after 2001, is more visibly returning to the Afghan political scene. With a publicity campaign, it is presenting itself as the party of the religious scholars, with a history distinct from other Muslim Brotherhood-inspired tanzim, and offers itself […]

14 Dec 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Afghanistan Breaking Bad: Crystal meth, a new drug on the market

The first methamphetamine seizure in Afghanistan was recorded in 2008, a minor capture of four grams in Helmand province. Now, seven years later, some 17 kilograms of methamphetamine, popularly known as ‘crystal meth’, were seized in the first ten months of 2015, in 14 out of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. The Ministry of Counter Narcotics warned […]

7 Dec 2015 Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

Finding Business Opportunity in Conflict: Shopkeepers, Taleban and the political economy of Andar district

Even in times of war, people still need to buy food and other essentials and shopkeepers still need to sell. But when frontlines shift and military masters change – due to insurgency, uprising or rising government power – how can shopkeepers react to try to survive the situation? Indeed, how can they try to find […]

2 Dec 2015 Fazl Rahman Muzhary • War and Peace

Before the Paris Conference: The state of Afghanistan’s climate and its adaption capability

Climate change is already having a severe impact on Afghans’ daily lives – but this challenge is often over-shadowed by what seem to be more-urgent problems: war and the economic crisis. Therefore, the reports submitted by the Afghan government for the Paris climate conference starting today, 30 November 2015 (and President Ashraf Ghani speaking in […]

30 Nov 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Ryskeldi Satke • Economy, Development, Environment

Ripping Up the Rule Book? US investigation into the MSF hospital attack

The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Campbell, has said the deadly air strike on the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz in the early hours of 3 October 2015 was “a direct result of avoidable human error compounded by process and equipment failures.” The US military investigation, moreover, found […]

27 Nov 2015 Kate Clark • Rights and Freedoms

Toward Fragmentation? Mapping the post-Omar Taleban

The Taleban movement has entered its third decade with infighting threatening its – up till now ­– remarkable unity. The killing of Mansur Dadullah during clashes between Taleban factions in Zabul on 12 November 2015 highlighted the scope of this unprecedented discord. Dadullah had been deputy leader of a newly-formed, breakaway faction of the Taleban. […]

24 Nov 2015 Borhan Osman • War and Peace

The Afghan Government and th­e ‘Smart City’ Debacle: Who out-smarted whom?

The Afghan government, much to its chagrin, has found itself embroiled in a controversy that has direct links to the 2010 Kabul Bank scandal. On 4 November 2015, a small group of high-level government officials presided over the stone-laying ceremony of a new and ambitious township called Smart City. What was meant as a good […]

21 Nov 2015 Martine van Bijlert • Economy, Development, Environment

“One Year’s Result is Not a Trend”: the 2015 opium cultivation decrease

The decline (by almost a fifth) in the area of land in Afghanistan planted with opium poppy in 2015 came as a surprise to many. Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan had been on the rise since 2010, when an opium poppy blight halved opium production and triggered a subsequent hike in opium prices. However, the decline […]

18 Nov 2015 Jelena Bjelica • Economy, Development, Environment

The Crowded-Out Conflict: Pakistan’s Balochistan in its fifth round of insurgency

In the international discussion on Pakistan´s many problems, the low-level conflict in its Balochistan province does not get much attention. The issue of nuclear arms, for instance, is considered more immediately frightening; Balochistan is just the area where these arms are tested. But the province is also the arena for a long-standing, complex and multi-faceted […]

16 Nov 2015 Ann Wilkens • Regional Relations

Quarter of a Century of War in Pictures: In conversation with Robert Nickelsberg – October, 2015

In conversation with Time magazine contract photographer Robert Nickelsberg, who has been visiting the Afghanistan since 1988, catching moments on film that are variously historic, unsettling and tender.

16 Nov 2015 AAN Guests • Podcasts