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Guest Blog: Author’s Reply to AAN Reading ‘Afgantsy’

It is usually a mistake for an author to come back to a reviewer, but you raise a number of interesting and useful points, which made me think it would be worth breaking the rule, wrote Rodric Braithwaite*, author of ‘Afgantsy’ which primarily looks at the impact of the Afghan war on Soviet people. Here […]

5 Jul 2011 Rodric Braithwaite • War and Peace

4 July AAN New Report: Layha: Calling the Taleban to Account

The new report by Kate Clark, AAN Senior Analyst, discusses the Taleban Code of Conduct of the Layha. In the report, Clark uses the Layha as a means of analysing the Taleban itself and the movements changing concerns, but she also asks whether the Layha could be approached in much more practical terms, as a […]

4 Jul 2011 AAN • admin • Events

Taleban Code of Conduct or the Layha

For English translations of the 2010, 2009 and 2006 Codes of Conduct, click here and to see the original Pashto texts, click here.

4 Jul 2011 Taleban and related documents

The Layha: Calling the Taleban to Account

This latest report by Kate Clark, Senior Analyst with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), discusses the Taleban Code of Conduct or the Layha. The latest Layha was issued a year ago, and the two previous in 2006 and 2009. Each new version of the Code has been longer, more detailed and more polished. The Layha […]

4 Jul 2011 Kate Clark • Special Reports

Talking about Civilian Casualties in Kabul (with comment)

Last week, on 28 June, ISAF Kabul had invited for a half-day conference on the issue of civilian casualties. The attendance, at least during the first hour, was high-ranking, with Gen. David Petraeus, NATO SCR Simon Gass, NSC chairman Rangin Dadfar Spanta and deputy speakers of both houses of the Afghan parliament. They all left […]

3 Jul 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Guest Blog: Reconciliation Reloaded in Khost

Once there was the Strengthening Peace programme, with it provincial branches, like here in Khost, to ‘reintegrate’ willing insurgent fighters. It failed because of corruption and a lack of political support. Now, there is its successor programme APRP, and it is unclear whether that’s just a new name on the same project. Our guest blogger […]

2 Jul 2011 Emilie Jelinek • War and Peace

Guest Blog: Who is Tayyeb Agha? (amended)

After years of rumors of talks with the Taleban, the US is finally meeting a senior Taleban representative face-to-face. In a series of encounters this spring in Germany and Doha, it has been leaked to the press that US officials have met with Tayyeb Agha, a leading Taleban figure. But the world of the Taleban […]

1 Jul 2011 Anand Gopal • War and Peace

Parliamentary Crisis: The Supreme Court Steps In

The resistance of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to implement the Special Electoral Court’s decision to replace 62 MPs due to alleged fraud, and the Supreme Court’s ruling that all decisions of the Wolesi Jirga are illegal until the 62 ‘new’ MPs take their place in parliament, have pushed this new institutional crisis to the […]

30 Jun 2011 Gran Hewad • Political Landscape

Pour une sortie de la crise en Afghanistan: Deux facteurs-clefs a l’approche de 2014: réconciliation at economie politique (not online)

Thomas Ruttig, Martine van Bijlert and Mathieu Lefevre. In: Annuaire Francais de Relations Internationales 2011 (vol. XII), pp. 809-27

30 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Martine van Bijlert • Mathieu Lefevre • External publications

28 June 2011: AAN’s Kate Clark at Chatham House

AAN’s Kate Clark, author of the report ‘The Takhar attack: Targeted killings and the parallel worlds of US intelligence and Afghanistan’, will take part in another discussion on the issue of the US Kill/Capture strategy at the Chatham House in London. In July 2010 when General David Petraeus took command of NATO’s campaign against the […]

28 Jun 2011 AAN • admin • Events

ATTACK ON KABUL INTERCONTI (updated)

A group of six armed insurgents has stormed into Kabul Interconti hotel around 10 pm on 28 June. Around 22.40 local time, we heard a loud single explosion, followed by police cars with sirens approaching the area and heavy but sporadic small arms fire. The group resisted until 4.40 in the morning; the last three […]

28 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Guest Blog: Electoral Reform Must Start Now

With the controversy between the Wolesi Jirga and the Special Election Court still continuing and throwing Afghanistan’s legislative into disarray, our guest blogger Grant Kippen(*) pleads for long-overdue election reform starting and bold steps now. There were two momentous announcements concerning Afghanistan this past week that will in their own and interconnected way have a […]

28 Jun 2011 Grant Kippen • Political Landscape

Khas Uruzgan violence and ISAF press releases

About ten days ago I received news of a nightly ALP raid in Khas Uruzgan, that had resulted in one death, four detainees, several severe beatings, some plunder and a fair amount of local anger. So when I spotted an ISAF press release about a meeting in the district, I assumed it was related to […]

26 Jun 2011 Martine van Bijlert • War and Peace

Special Court Suggests to Change 62 MPs: The Outgoing and The Outcome (amended)

Herewith, we continue to report the changes in the Wolesi Jirga composition which would happen if the Special Election Court’s findings presented on Thursday would be implemented – which is not sure. Today, we present the final list of those MPs who would need to leave the house. Gran Hewad and Obaid Ali have put […]

26 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Leaving Afghanistan: Where’s The Progress?

Along with other Afghanistan watchers, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig has been asked to comment on President Obama’s announcement of a partial troop withdrawal by Foreign Policy Magazine and the FP-related AfPakChannel. Please read a synthesis of both articles here*. The announcement of the troop drawdown by President Obama last night will not change the military balance […]

24 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • War and Peace

Special Court Suggests to Change 62 MPs: The Incoming (amended)

This Thursday, when President Barack Obama announced the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops by the end of the year and of 23,000 more by September 2012, Afghanistan actually was preoccupied with things domestic. The saga of the parliamentary elections of September 2010 saw a new chapter opened, and it is far from clear whether we […]

23 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • Political Landscape

Who cares about the Kuchi-Hazara conflict, nowadays?

Having lost hope of not witnessing outbursts of Kuchi-Hazara related violence at least for this year, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini reports on the recent conflict in Ghazni province, on the situation in neighbouring areas, and a perceived lack of interest on the matter on part of the government and the mass media. It looked as if […]

23 Jun 2011 Fabrizio Foschini • War and Peace

Guest Blog: Ruling from the Mezzanine – the Balkh case

The debate about the role of former commanders and warlords in the Afghan statehood and its regions, about whether they might integrate into the ‘new’ Afghanistan, become civilised by playing (in) the institutions as well as about what that means for the country’s direction is as controversial as inconclusive. Our guest blogger Michael Daxner* looks […]

21 Jun 2011 Michael Daxner • War and Peace

… and now: Eikenberry’s Reply

President Karzai’s speech of 18 June, in which he called the US – amongst other things – ‘occupiers’ that ‘have not built the roads for us but for themselves’, has obviously hit a raw nerve. Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador in Kabul, gave a ‘surprisingly emotional response’ (The AfPakChannel) in Herat on Sunday which might […]

21 Jun 2011 Thomas Ruttig • International Engagement

The IMF, Kabul Bank, government salaries and transition (updated)

The IMF and the Afghan government failed to reach an agreement last week on how to deal with the Kabul Bank crisis. The long-simmering controversy, which began months ago, is starting to have far-reaching consequences both for the cash-flow of the Afghan government and for the possible nature of the transition, as donors are making […]

20 Jun 2011 Martine van Bijlert • Economy, Development, Environment