Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Afghanistan’s marathon presidential election brings country to standstill

AAN •

The Guardian, 12 August 2014 In this article, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini widens the perspective of the still unresolved post-election audit stalemate: “If we can agree that delays, stalemates and obstructionism have been a recurrent theme of this electoral process, it does seem possible that this pattern extends to the political negotiations that will accompany the […]

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Human rights group blasts US military investigations of Afghan casualties

AAN •

Stars and Stripes, 11 August 2014 AAN’s Martine van Bijlert, in this article related to the recent amnesty international report criticising western forces for not doing justice after causing civilian casualties, points out one of the key problems of the international engagement in Afghanistan: Afghans have long felt that they have no access to justice […]

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Eine Farce in Kabul: Afghanische Präsidentschaftskandidaten versöhnen sich nur zum Schein

AAN •

Frankfurter Rundschau, 11 August 2014 and Kölner Stadtanzeiger, 12 August 2014 In an article about the Ghani-Abdullah deal brokered by Secretary Kerry, author Willi Germund quotes from Martine van Bijlert’s AAN dispatch, her doubts that the audit can be finished as quickly as planned: “Martine van Bijlert von Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) rechnete auf der […]

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Ämterschacher mit viel Reformrhetorik (print only)

Thomas Ruttig •

Tageszeitung (Berlin), 11 August 2014 Article by AAN’s Thomas Ruttig about the second Ghani-Abdullah agreement, brokered by US Secretary of State Kerry on 8 August. With details still held back, agreements about establishing new positions (quasi-prime ministerial CEO) and official leader of the opposition and government-opposition ‘parity’ in appointments, the deal looks like “haggling about […]

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Suicide Bomber Attacks NATO Convoy in Kabul

AAN •

Voice of America, 10 August 2014, and The Jewish Voice, 12 August 2014 In this article about the Kabul car bombing, a bridge is thrown to the issue of the ongoing post-election saga: Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, which is observing the process closely, blames the slow pace on wrangling over a small numbers of contested […]

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Rivals sign deal to form Afghan unity govt

AAN •

Reuters/ABC, Dawn and others, 9 August 2014 ANN’s Martine van Bijlert quotes commenting on the Kerry II agreement: “The audit was at a point where you could fairly easily predict that it was going to break down again,” said Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network in Kabul, adding that Mr Kerry appeared […]

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Simmering Feud Triggers String Of Assassinations in Balochistan

AAN •

Gandhara blog (RFE/RL), 8 August 2014 Gandhara authors Abubakar Siddique and Qasim Khan Mandokhel look at the “deepening blood feud between the clan of [Kandahar’s] powerful Afghan provincial security chief and the Taliban [that] has resulted in a series of assassinations in southwestern Pakistan.” They quote locals and politicians in Balochistan province saying that scores of […]

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

Dmitry Shlapentokh •

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,” […]

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Decades before Point Zero: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on a state visit to Afghanistan in 1955. Photo: archive

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

Thomas Ruttig •

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 […]

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Afghanistan’s presidential rivals reach agreement after Kerry flies into Kabul

AAN •

The Guardian, 8 August 2014 “Fabrizio Foschini, of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said the visit by the US secretary of state was a sign of improving conditions. ‘It shows a high level of commitment from the international community,’ Foschini said. ‘It remains to be seen whether this risks becoming a pattern, however, where every time […]

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Where do we start? Afghan unity talks at early impasse

Thomas Ruttig •

Reuters, 6 August 2014 An article about the tug-of-war about the ‘national unity government’ agreed in principle but not detail between the two presidential contenders, brokered by US State Secretary John Kerry. AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted: Thomas Ruttig, co-director of independent research organization Afghanistan Analysts Network in Kabul, said a new political culture had […]

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