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The Hunt for the Holy Wheat Grail: A not so ‘botanical’ expedition in 1935

AAN has just reported about an area in Central Afghanistan, the Shah Foladi in the Koh-e Baba mountain range, that was recently declared a new conservation area for its botanical diversity. This reminded AAN’s co-director Thomas Ruttig of a first ‘botanical’ expedition – 80 years ago, in 1935 – to another isolated mountainous region of […]

20 Jul 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

Protecting Beauty: Shah Foladi – a new conservation area for Afghanistan

Afghanistan has a new protected conservation area – the Shah Foladi: 2,700 square kilometres on the north side of the Koh-e Baba range of the Hindu Kush in Bamyan province. This mix of irrigated valleys, upland rangeland and high peaks is important for wildlife (270 species of birds, including many seasonal migrants, and many flowering […]

17 Jul 2015 Kate Clark • Economy, Development, Environment

Happy, Sweet Eid Days To You!

With the long and hot days of Ramadan fasting over, we hope that the coming Eid Al Fitr holidays will bring some sweet time with family and friends to all of you. The Afghanistan Analysts Network wishes a peaceful Eid Al Fitr to all its friends and readers, to all Muslims and particularly to the […]

16 Jul 2015 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Copper and Peace: Afghanistan’s China dilemma

Facing what is now more than a two year delay in the opening of the Ainak copper mine, the Afghan government has indicated that it is considering re-advertising the contract for the project which had been won by a consortium of Chinese state-own companies. This turnaround has the potential to grow into a major foreign […]

11 Jul 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

Classics of Conflict (2): Reviewing some of Afghanistan’s most notorious hotspots

The second part of our series reviewing ten places in Afghanistan that have been fought over throughout the last decade (see part 1 here) starts close to where the first ended: with an area straddling the border between Nuristan and Kunar provinces. Insurgents have in fact just recently captured the administrative centre of one of […]

9 Jul 2015 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Classics of Conflict (1): Reviewing some of Afghanistan’s most notorious hotspots

There are only a few places in Afghanistan everybody has heard of. Names like Panjwayi or Tora Bora, though, have been around for a long time, in some cases more than a decade. They have gained notorious prominence in the international press because of the heavy involvement of foreign forces and the subsequent heavy casualty rates, […]

3 Jul 2015 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Murad’s War: An Afghan face to the Syrian conflict

In Syria, the Assad regime is running out of soldiers and is increasingly relying on mercenaries. Many are Shiites – Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Yemenis. But no group is represented to the degree that the Afghan Hazara are. AAN guest author Christoph Reuter (*) has met two of them – recruited in […]

26 Jun 2015 Christoph Reuter • War and Peace

AAN Paper: Afghanistan’s new generation of Islamic activists

Since the fall of the Taleban, Afghanistan has gone through a great deal of changes. The efforts to establish a democratic and pluralistic political system, the hugely improved access to the rest of the world through media and telecommunication, the emergence of a middle class as a result of a growing economy and the influx […]

23 Jun 2015 AAN Team • Political Landscape

Beyond Jihad and Traditionalism: Afghanistan’s new generation of Islamic activists

Not all Afghan youth who are politically active and who want to change the status quo fit into the often simplified categories of being either progressive and educated, or uneducated and subversive. There is an often-overlooked segment of Afghanistan’s youth that is educated and engages in modern political debates and activities, while at the same […]

23 Jun 2015 Borhan Osman • Special Reports

“Reach the Women”: The US military’s experiment of female soldiers working with Afghan women

In 2009, the United States military in Afghanistan started deploying female soldiers to the field so that they could interact with Afghan women during operations and patrols. A picture of life as a member of what were called Female Engagement and Cultural Support Teams has come in a recently published book, Ashley’s War, by Gayle […]

20 Jun 2015 Gary Owen • War and Peace