Power to the People: How to extend Afghans’ access to electricity More than four billion dollars have, to date, been spent on Afghanistan’s power infrastructure. And yet there are still considerable deficiencies, even in the country’s capital, which has seen most of the investment – and most of the progress. At the same time, the demand for electricity is rapidly growing and the supply-demand gap has […] 3 Feb 2015 Mohsin Amin • Economy, Development, Environment
Winnowing the Cabinet List: MPs vote, nine of 27 ministers endorsed Afghanistan finally has some ministers – nine men; yes, all those who succeeded in getting the lower house’s endorsement were male. Today (26 January 2015), the Wolesi Jirga rejected ten other candidates, while eight other prospective ministers had already fallen by the wayside (because of having a second passport, a criminal conviction, not having a […] 28 Jan 2015 Kate Clark • Political Landscape
Women Suffering, Women Looking for Ways Out: A photo exhibition in Barcelona “A woman who wants to marry the man who raped her. . . . Brides ending up mutilated after their first sexual experience. . . . Women with university training and a career condemned to live with husbands they do not love because, if they divorce, they would lose their children.” These are captions to […] 27 Jan 2015 Thomas Ruttig • Rights and Freedoms
Biographies of the Initial Cabinet List – 2015 The full biographies of the initial cabinet list can be read here. Biographies of the two newly introduced candidates, Hakimi and Salahi, can be read at the end of this AAN report.) 26 Jan 2015 Lists (cabinet, MPs, governors etc.)
Battleground Kankur: Afghan students’ difficult way into higher education For some hundred thousand Afghan high school graduates, the university entry tests, known as kankur, have started. The first to sit the exam, from December onwards, were students in more-remote provinces, for example Badghis, Bamyan, Daikundi, Nuristan, Wardak, Logar and Sar-e Pul. Pictures of rows of students sitting on city squares or mosques taking the […] 23 Jan 2015 Obaid Ali • Economy, Development, Environment
The Cabinet and the Parliament: Afghanistan’s government in trouble before it is formed President Ashraf Ghani has introduced his cabinet to the parliament, which now has to confirm or reject his candidates. But by the time the list was officially presented to the MPs on Tuesday, 20 January 2015, he had already lost three prospective ministers and the position of several others was looking shaky. The choices of […] 20 Jan 2015 Kate Clark • Political Landscape
Going in Circles: The never-ending story of Afghanistan’s unfinished Ring Road Since the presidential campaign and during trips abroad President Ashraf Ghani has been promising to turn Afghanistan into an “Asian roundabout” for regional trade and transit. However, for this, Afghanistan would need to improve its transport systems and build new and better roads. That is probably why, in his first cabinet meeting, on 2 October […] 16 Jan 2015 Qayoom Suroush • Economy, Development, Environment
New Faces Versus Old Structures: Afghanistan’s national unity cabinet (amended) Finally, Afghanistan has a cabinet, pending parliament’s approval of course, three and a half months after Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah were inaugurated as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of a national unity government. Getting an agreed-upon list has been a long, painful process, for both negotiators and for Afghans waiting for a government […] 12 Jan 2015 AAN Team • Political Landscape
The Wrong Mission? New AAN discussion paper looks at NATO’s ‘Resolute Support’ AAN’s first paper of the new year – “Resolute Support Light: NATO’s New Mission versus the Political Economy of the Afghan National Security Forces” by guest author Philipp Münch – looks at NATO’s chances of achieving its goals in Afghanistan with Resolute Support (RS). The mission replaced ISAF on 1 January 2015. NATO’s motto in Afghanistan […] 12 Jan 2015 AAN Team • International Engagement
Resolute Support Light: NATO’s New Mission versus the ANSF Political Economy AAN’s first paper of the new year – “Resolute Support Light: NATO’s New Mission versus the Political Economy of the Afghan National Security Forces” by guest author Philipp Münch – looks at NATO’s chances of achieving its goals in Afghanistan with Resolute Support (RS). The mission replaced ISAF on 1 January 2015. NATO’s motto in Afghanistan has […] 12 Jan 2015 Philipp Münch • Special Reports
Taleban for the Ghani Cabinet? A look at a BBC report It sounded like ‘breaking news’ from Kabul: “The Taliban have been offered posts in the new Afghan government, but have turned them down, the BBC understands. The offer came from new President Ashraf Ghani in a bid to end the insurgency that threatens the recovery of the country.” The BBC report, that came just before […] 11 Jan 2015 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace
104 Days Without a Government – and Counting: The national mood sours More than three months after President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Abdullah Abdullah were inaugurated, they have still not formed a government. That continuing lack of a cabinet has meant public confidence and patience – which, at the time of the inauguration, ran high – are now wearing thin. A civil society […] 9 Jan 2015 Kate Clark • Obaid Ali • Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape
After the Rollercoaster Comes What? Afghanistan in 2015 2014 was a rollercoaster of a year. The transition was completed. It did not tear the country apart or fragment the security forces, but it sometimes felt close. Afghanistan now stands at the beginning of the optimistically named Decade of Transformation. The country has a new leadership, both fuelled by confidence and ambition and bogged […] 7 Jan 2015 Martine van Bijlert • International Engagement
A Happy and Peaceful New Year! Dear AAN friends and readers, we here at the Afghanistan Analysts Network would like to wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year 2015. May it bring us closer to peace in Afghanistan. The team will certainly keep you up to date about what is happening in this regard – and in many […] 1 Jan 2015 AAN Team • Context and Culture
A “Pending Issue”: Pakistani Balochs seeking shelter in Afghanistan While millions of Afghans have fled to Pakistan over the past four decades, now, Pakistanis are flocking to Afghanistan. There are not only those who flee Pakistani military operations in Waziristan, though, but also Pakistani Balochs who say that they flee from repression by the Pakistani government, linked to latest Baloch insurgency activities. In Afghanistan, […] 31 Dec 2014 Monica Bernabe • Regional Relations
AAN’s Kate Clark on closure of Bagram Detention Facility in Afghanistan, and the fate of the detainees. In conversation with AAN’s country director Kate Clark on closure of the Bagram Detention Facility in Afghanistan, and what will be the fate of the detainees? 30 Dec 2014 Kate Clark • Podcasts
“Green Is Happiness, Green Is Peace”: Gardening Afghanistan, from Babur to Bost hospital A garden for a king who loved the flower covered Kabul foothills so much he wanted to be buried there, a garden for checkpoint soldiers (where once a queen allegedly had tea under an apricot tree), one for hospital patients to heal in and one for the children of a poor farmer. In the midst […] 27 Dec 2014 Lalage Snow • Context and Culture
Thomas Ruttig on 2014 elections, Democracy and Political Transitions in Afghanistan In conversation with one of the co-founders of AAN Thomas Ruttig on 2014 elections, democracy and governance in Afghanistan. 26 Dec 2014 Thomas Ruttig • Podcasts
Merry Christmas! Here at AAN, we’d like to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas! May your holidays, in Afghanistan as well as abroad, be peaceful. And for those who remain in Kabul and wish to celebrate in style: as every year, fancy trees are back again and sold, including decoration, on Flower Street in Shar-e Naw. Many […] 24 Dec 2014 AAN Team • Context and Culture
Rambo Was Too Late: Afghanistan in Western films (part I), from 1909 to 2001 Afghanistan has rarely featured in western films, especially when compared to other foreign locales – from countries in Africa to Latin America to East Asia. This cinematic neglect is matched by the lower prominence that Afghanistan was accorded in the popular imagination and in western foreign policy during this era. Despite the shortage of films about […] 23 Dec 2014 Christian Bleuer • Context and Culture
