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Will the ‘Heart of Asia’ start beating? A review of the regional co-operation process

The dragging-on of the presidential election has also affected regional co-operation on Afghanistan. The Afghan government, supported by the international community, has been attempting to work with regional states towards co-operation on security and development in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood under what is called the ‘Heart of Asia’ or Istanbul process since November 2011. Scheduled […]

29 Aug 2014 S Reza Kazemi • Regional Relations

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (8): A full list of foreign detainees at Bagram?

 The United States military has always been highly secretive about the men it holds at the detention centre on Bagram airbase, only ever releasing one list of names – in February 2009, following a Freedom of Information request. AAN’s Kate Clark has been going through various sources of information and has put together what may […]

28 Aug 2014 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Thematic Dossier IV: Afghanistan’s 2014 Presidential and Provincial Council Elections

This year’s ‘political transition’ is hugely important: if all goes well, Afghanistan will see a new leader and a rare example in its history of a change of government not involving death, coup or conquest. If it goes badly, there will be consequences for the country’s stability. For many of those at the Afghanistan Analysts […]

21 Aug 2014 AAN Team • Dossiers

Elections 2014 (45): Solving audit problems by creating new ones

Afghanistan’s drawn-out election continues to keep a very large number of people very busy. And although there has been progress – both on the political and the technical side – this has mainly been achieved by delaying or isolating key discussion points and contentious decisions. The audit has finally started speeding up, but only after […]

19 Aug 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Footsloggers, Turncoats and Enforcers: The fight along the eastern border

Among the recent wave of large-scale attacks in Afghanistan, several hot spots in the eastern region stand out: Hesarak district in Nangarhar and other nearby districts in the Spin Ghar mountains, Kunar border areas, parts of Laghman and Barg-e Matal district in Nuristan. Fabrizio Foschini has been looking at recent episodes in the conflict in […]

18 Aug 2014 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Ahmad Zaher or Manga Style? The cutting-edge business of Afghan barbers

A young Afghan man’s morning, across the country, often starts with a time-consuming session of arranging his hair. Afghan men are proud of their usually thick, glossy tufts and barbers accordingly make good business providing their style-hungry customers with the latest cuts. This has tradition. A variety of distinct hairstyles can be seen on photographs […]

15 Aug 2014 Obaid Ali • Context and Culture

Elections 2014 (44): Key documents underwriting the electoral agreement

To provide background to the recent agreement between the two presidential candidates brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry (see here and here), AAN has gathered the texts of relevant statements in one place. These include, first and foremost, the joint declaration agreed and signed by both candidates on 8 August 2014, as well […]

13 Aug 2014 Martine van Bijlert • Political Landscape

Trying to Stop the Bases: Another opposition block in the making?

A political front composed of traditional mujahedin and neo-Islamist groups that oppose any foreign military presence has raised objections to the plan to establish a ‘national unity government’. It rather proposes setting up an ‘inclusive’ government, which would also involve the main insurgent groups, in order to end the war and then to hold fresh […]

12 Aug 2014 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

2014 Elections (43): The second installment of a Kerry-brokered agreement

US Secretary of State John Kerry made his second visit to Kabul in a month, in a repeated attempt to help Afghanistan finally arrive at an election outcome – preferably before the NATO summit in early September. The press conference at the end of his visit, together with both presidential candidates, was in many ways […]

9 Aug 2014 Martine van Bijlert • International Engagement

Афганистан.Ру: Russian elite views of Afghanistan on the eve of the US departure

When post-Soviet Russia lost its super-power status, this not only reduced its political and military role in many regions of the world but also spending on analysis, at least on the public academic level. Even Afghanistan, a country in Russia’s immediate neighbourhood, suffered that fate. Афганистан.Ру (Afghanistan.ru), a website with the sub-heading “all about Afghanistan,” […]

8 Aug 2014 Dmitry Shlapentokh • Regional Relations

From Point Zero to ‘New Warmth’: Russian-Afghan relations since 1989

After the Soviet occupation years, Afghan-Russian relations were on absolute zero. But post-Soviet Russia has worked carefully on improving the situation step by step. This strategy is based on an about-face under Yeltsin: dropping Najibullah and building a relationship with the mujahedin, beginning in 1992. In recent years, mounting Afghan-US and Russian-US tensions have made […]

8 Aug 2014 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

AAN’s Sari Kouvo at the joint conference by Women for Women International and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – January 2014

The conference brought together evidence and experience from leading financial institutions, NGOs, entrepreneurs, researchers and civil society to explore the impact of ‘laws in the books’ and ‘laws in action’ on the economic opportunities and empowerment of women, for example barriers in access to finance.

6 Aug 2014 Sari Kouvo • Podcasts

Under the Bridge: The drug addicts’ scene in Kabul

Addiction to drugs is an often underestimated phenomenon in Afghanistan. Thousands of people become addicted to drugs every year in a country that is the world’s major producer of opiates, although many of them developed the habit while living abroad as refugees. In Kabul, they concentrate in western areas of the city, living in veritable […]

5 Aug 2014 Qayoom Suroush • Economy, Development, Environment

Under the Cloak of History: The Kherqa-ye Sharif from Faizabad to Kandahar

These are hard times for holy shrines in many Muslim countries. Often targeted by fundamentalist militants who reject practices of popular religious devotion as un-Islamic, many ancient and famous ziarats have been destroyed or damaged. The last on the list seems to have been the tomb of Yunus (Jonah) near Mosul, Iraq, reportedly blown up […]

30 Jul 2014 Bette Dam • Fabrizio Foschini • Context and Culture

Happy Eid al Fitr!

While many Afghans seem tired of the long electoral process, and despite the concerns and uncertainties felt by the Afghan people, we hope that the coming Eid Al Fitr can bring happy days to all. The Afghanistan Analysts Network wishes a very happy and peaceful Eid Al Fitr to all Muslims, and particularly to the […]

28 Jul 2014 AAN Team • Context and Culture

Afghanistan in World War I (1): Afghans in the Kaiser’s jihad

 A hundred years ago, on 28 July 1914, the First World War started when Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia after a group of young pro-independence Serbian terrorists shot dead the Austro-Hungarian crown prince in Sarajevo one month earlier. Soon, millions were dying on the battlefields across four continents in what was termed the “first global […]

27 Jul 2014 Thomas Ruttig • Context and Culture

2014 Elections (42): Audit stopped, re-started, UN intervenes

There have been days of futile negotiations between the technical teams of the two presidential election candidates over the nature of the ‘invalidation’ criteria – the rules for deciding what to do with votes deemed suspicious in the audit of the 14 June second round of the presidential vote. Now, the United Nations has stepped in […]

25 Jul 2014 Kate Clark • Qayoom Suroush • Political Landscape

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory: How ISAF infighting helped doom Sangin to its ongoing violence

Sangin district in Helmand has again, this year, seen heavy fighting, this time between the Afghan National Security Forces and the Taleban. With dozens killed and thousands displaced following an insurgent assault involving hundreds of fighters, the Taleban leadership is once again showing how much it values this strategic crossroads and poppy-producing hub. Guest author […]

23 Jul 2014 Julius Cavendish • War and Peace

Memorials and Patrons: How northern Afghan elites try to own history

Elites in Mazar-e Sharif, the capital of Balkh province and most important city in the north, have, in recent years, supported the building of new memorials and re-naming of the city’s streets and intersections. They are also sponsoring intellectuals and their literary and artistic output. These are politically driven cultural projects, attempts by the leading […]

21 Jul 2014 S Reza Kazemi • Context and Culture

Elections 2014 (41): Audit started, rules as yet unclear

The audit of all of the votes cast in Afghanistan’s presidential election run-off has begun at the headquarters of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on the outskirts of Kabul on 17 July. Thirty teams of IEC staff (to be raised eventually to one hundred) checked just one ballot box each, overseen by candidates’ agents, observers […]

17 Jul 2014 Kate Clark • Qayoom Suroush • Political Landscape