Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Insecurity and opium blight Afghan province as British troops leave

AAN •

The News/AFP, 28 October 2014 The Pakistani newspaper picks up a report apparently from AFP about the closure of the UK’s Camp Bastion, on of the largest NATO/ISAF bases in the country, in Helmand province. In it, it quotes from an AAN dispatch discussing the situation in one of Helmand’s districts, Sangin: “A report by […]

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Islamic State and Foreign Fighters: Jihadists from Central Asia

AAN •

Eurasia Review, 27 October 2014 In a short analysis of the trend of Central Asian jihadists enrolling with the IS to fight in Syria and Iraq ,  the author quotes from Christian Bleuer’s recent AAN dispatch about the same issue.  

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Ruttig on Afghanistan’s prospects

Thomas Ruttig •

Afghan Hindsight, 25 October 2014 Blogger Tim Foxley was so nice to summarise my presentation at Malmö University in Sweden, an event i owe to an invitation from the renowned Swedish Committee for Afghanistan and that evening’s hosts from the Malmö chapter of the Association for Foreign Affairs. Tim found my presentation as follows: ‘mixed pessimism […]

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UK military ‘made wrong calculations’ on Afghanistan

AAN •

BBC, 22 October 2014 The series of admission of grave mistakes in Afghanistan continues: after the US SIGAR called the US anti-narcotics strategy a failure and even the German chancellor expressed doubts whether the NATO training mission should end in 2016, the commander of the British troops in Helmand in 2006 admits – in a […]

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Surprise: U.S. Drug War in Afghanistan Not Going Well

AAN •

The Intercept, 21 October 2014 AAN’s first appearance, through a link, on Glenn Greenwald’s website, in a comment on the latest SIGAR report about the failed anti-narcotics strategy in Afghanistan. It says that “Experts at the Afghan [sic] Analysts Network have noted the expanding power of warlords in Afghanistan’s rural regions” and links to Obaid Ali’s 2013 […]

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Is the Afghan Unity Government a Roadmap for Negotiations With the Taliban?

AAN •

Foreign Policy, 20 October 2014 Very interesting think piece by Barney Rubin, suggesting options how to get a political solution including the Taleban – and not just a ‘deal’ with the Taleban – going again, as part of the constitutional review (over the possible inclusion of the position of a CEO/prime minister). His main and […]

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Afghanistan conflict: Life inside a Taliban stronghold

AAN •

BBC, 20 October 2014 Visit in Taleban-controlled Tangi (-ye Seyyedabad) valley in Wardak province, an area where the insurgency started when the road was paved.

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Haqqani Leaders Detained in Persian Gulf, Not Inside Afghanistan

AAN •

Wall Street Journal, 19 October 2014 The Journal corrects reports that the two Haqqani leaders – Anas Haqqani (a son of Jalaluddin Haqqani) and Hafiz Rashid (brother of one of the Guantanamo Five released earlier this year in exchange against US Taleban captive Bowe Bergdahl) – were not arrested in Afghanistan but “in Bahrain by […]

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Afghans [in Nimruz] living under shadow of Iranian guns

AAN •

al-.Jazeera, 15 October 2014 Iran’s ambivalent role in the southwestern Afghan province, between humanitarian work and cultural dominance. And it is building a wall against drugs and other smugglers, too.

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Writings and Statements of Ashraf Ghani

AAN •

The Afghanistan Analyst (blog), 7 October 2014 Useful link list to the new president’s earlier publications, including “Closing the Sovereignty Gap – an approach to state-building”, “A Ten-Year Framework for Afghanistan” (the basis of his 2009 presidential campaign) and his 1982 dissertation.

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Afghans Sound Alarm Over Islamic State Recruitment: Western Officials Skeptical

Thomas Ruttig •

Wall Street Journal, 13 October 2014 AAN’s Christian Bleuer is quoted here on IS Central Asian recruitment: Islamic State has already recruited extremists from Afghanistan’s northern neighbors, according to Christian Bleuer, an expert on Central Asia with the Kabul-based Afghan Analysts Network. “As far as their presence in Central Asia goes, they are mostly producing […]

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