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The Abbottabad Files: ‘Guests’ and ‘brothers’ at the AfPak border

Just around the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s killing by US Special Operations Forces, the US government decided to release 17 al-Qaeda documents(1) that were found in his last refuge in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. 17 out of 6,000 seized documents is not much, and it is open how representative this selection is […]

8 May 2012 Thomas Ruttig • Regional Relations

A young leader lost: Sebghatullah Sanjar

Sebghatullah Sanjar, leader of Afghanistan’s Republican Party, an advisor to President Karzai, an ambitious politician of a younger, democratically leaning generation and a good friend, lost his life in a traffic accident in Kabul on Saturday. Thomas Ruttig, a Senior Analyst and Co-Director at AAN, first met Sanjar in 2000 when he was working with […]

6 May 2012 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Obama’s visit in ‘pre-dawn darkness’

President Obama has visited Afghanistan under cover of darkness, signed a ten year strategic partnership agreement, spoken to the American – although not the Afghan – people from Bagram, claimed near victory over al-Qaida and the Taleban, said a new day was dawning for Afghanistan and left. The Taleban, meanwhile, tried to pretend the visit […]

3 May 2012 Kate Clark • International Engagement

May 2012: ‘Under the Drones’ – New book with AAN participation

Titled ’Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan borderlands’ and edited by Shahzad Bashir and Robert D. Crews, the book contains chapters about a broad spectrum of issues, both political and ethnographic, that go back to a seminar held at Stanford University in late 2009. I asked a mullah, what do you think Paradise is […]

30 Apr 2012 AAN • admin • Events

How Tribal Are the Taliban?

Thomas Ruttig, in ’Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands’, Shahzad Bashir and Robert D. Crews, eds, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) and London, 2012. The book contains chapters about a broad spectrum of issues, both political and ethnographic, that go back to a seminar held at Stanford University in late 2009: James […]

28 Apr 2012 Thomas Ruttig • External publications

Flash from the Past: Power play before the 2002 Emergency Loya Jirga

Ten years ago, Afghans were preparing for the Emergency Loya Jirga (ELJ) with high hopes. The chairman of its preparatory commission had dubbed it the ‘Peace and Democracy Loya Jirga’(1), reflecting the aspirations of a majority of Afghans. But the country was already in the grips of political posturing. There were attempts to prevent the […]

27 Apr 2012 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

The second line of talks: Hezb-e Islami in Kabul

With the suspension of talks in Qatar and the spike in security incidents across the country, the latter part of the mooted “fight and talk” equation looks pretty lopsided this year as far as the Taleban goes. But meanwhile, dialogue between the second largest insurgent group ‘Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin’ (HIG) (1) and the Afghan government […]

26 Apr 2012 Gran Hewad • War and Peace

Likely a legal act of war: Death of an Afghan journalist

An investigation into the fatal shooting of an Afghan journalist by a US soldier in July 2011 has raised critical questions about the safety of local reporters working in the field, and the need for greater honesty by ISAF when operations go wrong, according to a new report by Kate Clark, a senior analyst at […]

25 Apr 2012 Kate Clark • War and Peace

Death of an Uruzgan journalist: Command Errors and Collateral Damage

An investigation into the fatal shooting of an Afghan journalist by a US soldier raises critical questions about the safety of local reporters working in the field, and the need for greater honesty by ISAF when operations go wrong, according to a new report by AAN’s senior analyst, Kate Clark. Omaid Khpulwak was killed at […]

25 Apr 2012 Kate Clark • Special Reports

In Kabul’s Shadow: the attacks in the provinces on 15-16 April

The attacks that took place a week ago in Kabul received more than their fair share of media coverage. The same thing cannot be said for the parallel attacks launched by insurgents simultaneously in three other provincial capitals. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini and Obaid Ali look into the attacks in Nangrahar, Paktia and Logar, to try […]

24 Apr 2012 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Guest Blog: An Afghan Pulitzer Prize Winner

Afghan photojournalist Massoud Hossaini, who has worked for AFP news agency in Kabul since 2007, won the Pulitzer prize in the category of ‘Breaking News Photography’ earlier this week. Hossaini is the first ever Afghan to win the highly prestigious Pulitzer prize, sought after by top journalists worldwide. AAN guest blogger Martin Gerner, a media […]

21 Apr 2012 Martin Gerner • Context and Culture

Farah (2): Empty Spaces Beyond the Road

Part two of the report on the vast and far-off western province of Farah. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini looks at the threat that insurgents pose to communication routes and at the successes and shortcomings of security arrangements in the districts, complicated by poppy crops, social divides and the lack of an effective government presence. If mass […]

20 Apr 2012 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

9 May 2012: Afghanistan: Deux mondes qui s’affrontent. Imaginaire ou réalité ?

In cooperation with the Libre Examen, AAN is organising a half day seminar in Brussels to explore the perceptions and realities of the international engagement and conflict in Afghanistan. From their different perspectives the speakers at the seminar have been asked to reflect on the current situation in Afghanistan – and especially on the meaning […]

20 Apr 2012 AAN • admin • Events

Farah (1): An island of secularism in the midst of troubled waters

Farah is the fourth largest province in the country and yet a frequently forgotten expanse in the Afghan Far West. It is also a doggedly contested battleground of insurgents and government, as recently shown with a spat of attacks on supply convoys and security forces that inflicted heavy casualties between the end of March and […]

19 Apr 2012 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Guest blog: Working in Aid: donor rule, funding flows, and awkward ‘no’s

Criticism of top-down development approaches find common cause in Afghanistan, where projects are often envisioned and implemented without due attention paid to realities on the ground. Here, AAN guest blogger SARAH HAN shares some of her personal experience of the oft-frustrating world of donor-NGO relations. Her paper ‘Legal Aid in Afghanistan: Context and Challenges,’ released […]

18 Apr 2012 Sarah Han • Economy, Development, Environment

Legal Aid in Afghanistan: Contexts, Challenges and the Future

In this new briefing paper, lawyer and legal aid expert Sarah Han looks at the historical, legal and political context to the provision of legal aid and describes the efforts of the international community over the past five years to developing funding streams for the accused. The author commends the modest but significant improvements in […]

18 Apr 2012 Sarah Han • Special Reports

A second Rabbani takes the helm at the High Peace Council

The competition for a successor to the late former president Burhanuddin Rabbani at the head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) is over: Rabbani’s eldest son Salahuddin has been appointed by President Karzai. But is this appointment a real attempt to get a peace process on track, or is it instead, simply an alliance-building manoeuvre […]

17 Apr 2012 Gran Hewad • Political Landscape

‘Spring Offensive’ and the War of Perceptions

It is not easy to strike the right balance when discussing yesterday’s attacks by the Taleban in Kabul and three provinces. The international media, particularly those without correspondents on the ground, have talked up the intensity and relevance of the attacks in eye-catching headlines, referring to them as a ‘Taleban offensive’, ‘attack on the diplomatic […]

16 Apr 2012 Martine van Bijlert • War and Peace

4 May 2012: The EU in International Affairs III

AAN discusses the EU’s role for promoting human rights in Afghanistan at the VUB conference about EU and international affairs. For more information about the conference, click here.

15 Apr 2012 AAN • admin • Events

13 April 2012: New article by Thomas Ruttig in ‘Orient’

‘The Road through Qatar: Chances for a political solution with the Taleban’ is the latest article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig in ‘Orient’, issue II/2012, a Berlin-based journal founded in 1960 and currently edited by Deutsches Orient-Institut in the German capital. It is part of a special issue on Afghanistan. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at the […]

13 Apr 2012 AAN • admin • Events