Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

Watching ‘The Patience Stone’ in Kabul

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Afghanistan Analysis blog, 28 January 2013 Young Afghans watch the movie after a novel by Atiq Rahimi (of ‘Earth and Ashes’ fame) and discuss what can/should be shown in movies and what not, with interesting insight from a young mulla.

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Despite a Whiff of Unpleasant Exaggeration, a City’s Pollution Is Real

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New York Times, 21 January 2013 A report about pollution and air quality in Kabul, with the Kabul mayor Mohammad Yunus Nawandish saying: ‘Kabul air is not as polluted with human feces as they say.’

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AAN Occasional Paper on the Pre-1979 Causes of the Afghan Conflict

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For most people, it was the Soviet invasion over Christmas 1979 that put Afghanistan on the political map when, in the very last days of the 1970s, the Soviet leadership made the central Asian country the arena of the hottest conflict in the last part of the Cold War. As a result, the internationalised Afghanistan […]

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Black & Veatch, with history of problems in Afghanistan, now has another

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McClatchy newspapers, 19 January 2013 Another (failed and USAID-financed) US contractor story, featuring the ‘White Elephant of Kabul’, the Tarakhel Power Plant, a USD 300 million project.

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Nationalism, religion a deadly mix in Balochistan

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Dawn (Pakistan), 15 January 2013 A mind-blowing account of how Baloch secular political traditions were undermined and a militant Islamist brand spead – backdrop to latest terrorist attacks and protests in Quetta.

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Playgrounds of Afghanistan, Part 1

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El Snarkistani’s blog, 18 January 2013 US company builds playgrounds for children in Afghanistan, financed by USAID. Snarky adds photos of Afghan-build playgrounds…

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افشای نام زمین‌خواران بزرگ [Names of Big Land-Grabbers Revealed]

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Hasht-e Sobh (Kabul), 17 January 2013 After an investigation and lengthy debates in the Afghan parliament which finally declined to name the land grabbers, the Kabul-based daily reveals some names, including ‘parlamentarians and commanders’. See yourself.

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ISAF’s First Fifteen Days [in 2013]

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A Different Place (blog), 15 January 2013 Alex Strick has been working on the ISAF press releases data again. As a little teaser (also for another AAN publication to come), here’s a chart comparing the first fifteen days of January in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It shows the number of ISAF operations in which someone […]

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U.S. policy and troops in Afghanistan

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Washington Post, 11 January 2013 A soft-spoken but dramatic analysis of a tacit US policy change by former US Ambassador to Kabul Ronald Neumann: ‘A presence of 3,000 to 6,000 troops is a counterterrorist policy that gives up on serious support for the Afghan military and focuses on killing our enemies. It offers nothing to […]

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Talking to the Taliban

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Foreign Policy, 10 January 2013 A very interesting and differentiated historical and post-2001 perspective on his experience in talking to Taleban, why they talk in certain contexts and what that means for future negotiations with them by Michael Semple.

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The Poppy Palaces … of Kabul, where Scarface meets Scarsdale

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Vanity Fair, 9 January 2013 The author looks into the narco-palaces of Sherpur, with ‘“For Rent” signs all over’ it and waiting that ‘Blackwater’s coming’, referring to the security firm now called Academi, and the US’s ‘zero option’.

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Hidden casualties of Afghan war: nomadic farmers adopt more settled life

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Guardian, 8 January 2013 An interesting glimpse into often-idealised nomadic life in Afghanistan by Emma Graham-Harrison, based on research by the Pastoral Engagement, Adaptation and Capacity Enhancement (Peace) programme. According to it, ‘hundreds of thousands’ of nomads have settled down ‘or are petitioning the government for land so they can join a more mainstream way […]

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