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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

Elections in Hibernation: Afghanistan’s stalled electoral reform

Afghanistan’s electoral reform process has been bogged down for months. While the National Unity Government agreement called for the “immediate establishment” of an Electoral Reform Commission, it took the president five months just to sign the necessary decree. Now, three months later, the commission has still not started its work and it looks like the original […]

17 Jun 2015 Ehsan Qaane • Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Hamstrung by Translation: How to analyse Afghanistan in an Afghan language?

The most efficient languages to write about Afghan politics and society ought to be the two main languages of the country, Dari and Pashto. No foreign language can capture the various concepts native to Afghanistan as intricately as native speakers’ own languages do, for example in the case of Pashtunwali customs. However, the local languages […]

13 Jun 2015 Borhan Osman • Context and Culture

Bamyan, First Ever Cultural Capital of South Asia: A big party, but what else?

Five months late and almost half-way through its crucial year, Bamyan has finally been inaugurated as the 2015 South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) cultural capital, the organisation’s first ever. Second Vice President Sarwar Danesh, Second Deputy Chief Executive Muhammad Mohaqeq and Minister of Information and Culture Bari Jahani were among the guests who […]

8 Jun 2015 Qayoom Suroush • Context and Culture

The Folly of Double Government: Lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War for the 21st century

The latest AAN report, a discussion paper named “The Folly of Double Government: Lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War for the 21st Century” by guest author, Noah Arjomand, revisits Britain’s attempt at state-building in Afghanistan from 1839-1841. The disastrous British retreat from Kabul in January 1842 and the subsequent British pillage of the Afghan capital […]

7 Jun 2015 Noah Arjomand • Special Reports

The Folly of Double Government: Lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War for the 21st century

The latest AAN report, “The Folly of Double Government: Lessons from the First Anglo-Afghan War for the 21st Century” by guest author Noah Arjomand, revisits Britain’s attempt at state-building in Afghanistan from 1839-1841. The disastrous British retreat from Kabul in January 1842 and the subsequent British pillage of the Afghan capital are well-known events that […]

7 Jun 2015 AAN Team • International Engagement

The Failed Pilot Test: Kunduz’ local governance crisis

The fighting in Kunduz is only one side of the problem. Also issues not related to security are in disarray. Health care, education, agriculture, reconstruction – all are on hold and do not receive much attention from the newly established top level of local authorities. This, AAN guest author Bethany Matta argues, has much to […]

5 Jun 2015 Bethany Matta • War and Peace

The 2015 Insurgency in the North: Case studies from Kunduz and Sar-e Pul provinces

Kunduz and Sar-e Pul have both been staging grounds for the Taleban’s first major onslaughts of the ‘spring offensive’ that they launched in late April – the first under massive public scrutiny, the second a lesser-known example of the same dynamics. In both provinces, the insurgents managed to get close to the provincial centres, at […]

4 Jun 2015 Obaid Ali • War and Peace

Banning the Banned from Travel: Taleban Five still in Qatar

There has been a spate of stories about the end of the travel ban on the five Taleban detainees released from Guantanamo Bay a year ago and exchanged for the United States soldier Bowe Bergdahl. US politicians and media have been speculating on what impact the five might have on the insurgency if they came […]

1 Jun 2015 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Pushing Open the Door to Peace? Pugwash organises next round of Taleban talks in Qatar

Preparations are on-going for what are labelled “non-official” talks between Afghans of “different parties.” Organised by the non-governmental academic network, the Pugwash Conference, this will be a follow up to a first round of such talks held in Qatar on 2 and 3 May 2015 which brought members of the two biggest insurgent organisations – […]

31 May 2015 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Stanakzai Goes from Peace to War: For Afghanistan, finally a defence minister?

The national unity government is making its fourth attempt to appoint a minister of defence. On 24 May 2015, the presidential palace announced the nomination of Masum Stanakzai who has been the head of the Joint Secretariat of the High Peace Council and Afghanistan Peace and Reconciliation Programme since 2009. Members of Parliament will still need […]

28 May 2015 Kate Clark • Political Landscape