Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

Poppy farmers face uncertain future as Taliban cracks down on opium trade

Daily Telegraph, 19 April 2022 The British daily quotes from an AAN report, about the macro-economic context of the Taleban’s latest ban on opium poppy cultivation: A recent report by the Afghanistan Analysts Network said: “Afghanistan has already lost most of its other foreign income in the form of on and off-budget support, both civilian […]

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Afghan Farmers Fear For Livelihoods As Taliban Bans Opium

Gandhara, 14 April 2022 The RFE/RL Afghanistan report quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig: Thomas Ruttig, [former] co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank, says most farmers grow poppies to stay out of poverty. “This ban might push them back into poverty, which might have consequences,” he told RFE/RL. He says the Taliban won the […]

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بررسی اقتصاد افغانستان در شش ماه نخست حاکمیت رژیم طالبان (A study of the Afghan economy in the first six months of the Taliban regime)

Hasht-e Sobh, 17 Hamal 1401 (6 April 2022) Although based on World Bank, UN data and western media reporting, this is an interesting summary as it comes from an Afghan angle.

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Why Now? — The Afghanistan-Ukraine Nexus

Australian Institute of International Affairs, 5 April 2022 Prof. Bill Maley’s commentary, culminating in the following statement: … the invasion of Ukraine arguably reflected […] the failure of general deterrence — that is, the creation through word and deed of apprehension in the mind of an aggressive autocrat that a democratic superpower such as the United States […]

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Taliban versuchen Medien auf Linie zu bringen

Deutsche Welle, 4 April 2022 In this article about the situation of the media under the Taleban, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted extensively (in German), beginning with saying that the closure of many media was not only the result of Taleban restrictions but also of the long-term drying out of international funding: Dies gehe allerdings […]

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Afghanistan-Konferenz in China: Pekings Vorstoß Richtung Kabul

Tageszeitung, 31 March 2022 In this op-ed for the Berlin-based daily, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig looks at a series of recent Afghanistan-related meetings hosted by China’s government and the latest UN donor conference (in German).

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The Taliban is holding girls’ education hostage in Afghanistan – the question is, why?

The Conversation, 28 March 2022 This article by long-term Afghanistan analyst Sippi Azarbaijani Moghaddam deflates the myth about the success of girls education under the Western-backed predecessor government to the Taleban, also linking to AAN’s March 2017 seminal report, “A Success Story Marred by Ghost Numbers: Afghanistan’s inconsistent education statistics.”

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Afghanistan’s girls’ schools can — and must — stay open. There is no alternative

Nature, 28 March 2022 The leading science magazine quotes from a recent AAN report in its editorial: Others in the Taliban envisage a different future. … Many have been to schools and universities abroad and acquired professional qualifications. Among their number are current Taliban leaders whose own daughters and sons are being educated, according to […]

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Afghanistan’s struggle: it isn’t just the Taliban

The Guardian, 23 March 2022 AAN is quoted in this Guardian editorial: … as the Afghanistan Analysts Network warned recently: “This is not an economic crisis that has mainly hit the poor and the vulnerable and it cannot be addressed by emergency food aid alone. At its most basic level, the economy needs its cash to flow […]

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L’analista Fabrizio Foschini: «In Afghanistan il popolo è stanco della guerra»

Settesere qui, 19 March 2022 Interview with regular AAN contributor Fabrizio Foschini in this regional newspaper in the Romagna region (in Italian).

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Climate change must become part of the global agenda on Afghanistan

Chatham House, 16 March 2022 Hameed Hakimi and Oli Brown of this British think tank, in their ‘experts comment’, make a point that is not new, but can’t be reiterated often enough, as this has been thoroughly ignored during 20 years of Western-driven ‘reconstruction’.

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The Limits of Foreign Intervention in Promoting Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

The Diplomat, 8 March 2022 In this article reflecting on women’s rights in Afghanistan, the author refers to and quotes from AAN research on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law: Although the Elimination of Violence Against Women (EVAW) law was promulgated in 2009 by presidential decree, it was the 2013 attempt to ratify […]

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