Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Thomas Ruttig

“Fehler des Westens verhalfen Taliban an die Macht”

Freie Presse, 3 September 2021 Full interview (in German) in the Chemnitz-based daily with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, looking at the reasons for the collapse of the western-bakced Afghan government, saying that the West’s mistakes were key.

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Afghans With Ties to U.S. Who Could Not Get Out Now Live in Fear

The New York Times, 3 September 2021 AAN research on the situation of new appointments in Taleban-controlled areas is quoted here: “Caretaker appointments at various levels — provincial, district, department and ministerial — have so far been drawn (almost) exclusively from the Taliban’s own ranks, with no sign of non-Taliban appointments,” the Afghanistan Analysts Network […]

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Hamid Karzai is back in the thick of Afghan politics but a long way from power

Washington Post, 3 September 2021 AAN’s Ali Adili is quoted here on the whereabouts of former president Hamed Karzai after the takeover of the Taleban in Kabul: “I’m not sure if it’s a kind of house arrest, but it shows the space for them is really shrinking,” said Ali Adili, a researcher with the Afghanistan […]

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Taliban Press Last Afghan Resistance Fighters in North

Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2021 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here on alleged Taleban abuses after taking power in Kabul: “There are abuses going on,” said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. “It’s not clear whether these are Taliban or they are people running around with guns and garb pretending to be […]

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Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars:
Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones

Costs of War Project, 1 September 2021 In case you missed it, too: the figures from Afghanistan & Pakistan (Oct. 2001 – Aug. 2021); Iraq (March 2003 – Aug. 2021); Syria (Sept. 2014 – May 2021); Yemen (Oct. 2002-Aug. 2021) and Other Post-9/11 War Zones by the Brown University/Watson Institute’s Costs of War Project.

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How Jimmy Carter Started America’s Afghanistan Folly

Washington Monthly, 1 September 2021 A reminder that the latest round of Afghan wars did not start at 9/11, 2001. And interesting background on how “hawkish national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski” convinced Carter to start a covert support programme for the mujahedin, “ignoring the advice of his chief foreign policy adviser, Secretary of State Cyrus […]

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A New Breed of Crisis: War and Warming Collide in Afghanistan

The New York Times, 30 August 2021 Another often overlooked major aspect of Afghanistan’s comply crises, highly timely while almost everyone looks at the the Taleban takeover.

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Commentary: The True Cost Of Cutting Funding To Afghanistan

Gandhara, 30 August 2021 Opinion piece by AAN member and former had of the Swedish Afghanistan Committee, Anders Fänge, arguing that the IMF, World Bank and US freezing/blocking of Afghan currency reserves and other financial means as well as some government’s halt of development assistance to Afghanistan  was “a recipe for disaster”, particularly for Afghanistan’s […]

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Afghan activist says Ashraf Ghani and Joe Biden caused misery and chaos

Deutsche Welle, 27 August 2021 Interview with ex-head of Afghan Red Crescent and Doha negotiator Fatema Gailani at the German international public broadcaster.

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Backing the UN can help Afghans facing a tough winter

Chatham House, 26 August 2021 … the international community must come together behind the United Nations (UN) to engage with the new administration in Kabul. The priority tasks to focus on are releasing frozen assets, mobilizing humanitarian assistance, refocusing the UN presence in the country, and setting ground rules for future collaboration in all sectors […]

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How exile changed the Taliban

Financial Times, 25 August 2021 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted here on the controversial issue whether the Taleban have changed or not: Thomas Ruttig, a founder of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, said the Taliban had always been a “learning organisation” well aware of its past failures. Some former officials of the Taliban’s 1990s government […]

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