Thomas Ruttig

Afghanistan Pinned Hopes For Change On Biden, But U.S. Likely To Stay Course Set By Trump

RFE/RL, 14 November 2020 AAN’s Ali Yawar Adeli is quoted in this news item as saying, about demands from within the Afghan government process at US president-elect Joe Biden’s address to ‘review’ the peace process with the Taleban: “There has been no articulation on the part of the government as to how it wants the […]

14 Nov 2020

کابل؛ امسال سمی‌ترین زمستان را پیش‌ رو خواهد داشت (Kabul this year will have the most toxic winter ahead)

Sobh-e Kabul, (31 Oct 2020) A warning about the unchecked burning of coal in Kabul (which uses 80% of the country’s coal production – much of it unearthed illegally), particularly by controversial new high-rise buildings and about a politically restricted National Environmental Protection Agency of Afghanistan without “effective long-term and short-term plans to reduce air […]

12 Nov 2020

When Clint Eastwood came to Afghanistan

al-Jazeera, 28 Februar 2016 Helena Malekyar’s informative 2016 piece about Kabul’s cinema and movie theatres.

10 Nov 2020

Trotz Friedensgesprächen in Doha: Die Gewalt in Afghanistan eskaliert

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 3 November 2020 Kate Clark’s analysis for AAN of recent trends of violence in Afghanistan is quoted in this article in the leading Swiss daily, NZZ: Das Afghan [sic] Analysts Network schreibt in seinem jüngsten Bericht, dass das Abkommen mit den USA und die intraafghanischen Friedensgespräche vor allem den Taliban genützt hätten. Die Zugeständnisse […]

3 Nov 2020

AAN Obituary: Mahbuba Hoquqmal, ‘friend of the law’ (1944-2020)

Thomas Ruttig •

Mahbuba Hoquqmal was one of the most important legal scholars in Afghanistan. As a participant in two loya jirgas and with her working life dedicated to teaching and legal reform, she shaped the country’s constitutional history. She particularly focussed on the improvement of the legal situation of Afghan women. On 30 October 2020, she died […]

3 Nov 2020

Afganistán, la guerra más letal del mundo

La Cronica Coruna, 2 November 2020 The Spanish news website quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, on a report that showed that Afghanistan was “the most lethal country in the world”: “El acuerdo entre EE UU y los talibanes aún no será un acuerdo de paz, aunque la disposición, o no, de los talibanes para otro alto […]

2 Nov 2020

En Afghanistan, les talibans font monter la pression

La Croix, 27 October 2020 The French daily quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig bout one of the hurdles for progress in the intra-Afghan talks in Doha: « Ni le gouvernement afghan ni les talibans ne veulent reconnaître la partie adverse », explique Thomas Ruttig, codirecteur de l’Afghanistan Analysts Network. « C’est pour cela que les talibans […]

29 Oct 2020

Afghanistan Is Not Doomed to Repeat Its Past

Foreign Policy, 26 October 2020 Barnett Rubin analyses lessons from the 1988 Geneva Accords (about the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan) and the 2011 Bonn Agreement, in order to avoid a breakdown like in 1992. As key conclusions he recommends to modify and the 2004 constitution for the transition that is supposed to result from the […]

26 Oct 2020

Global Peace Index 2020

Institute for Economics & Peace, October 2020 Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the second year in a row, followed by Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen. Afghanistan is one of the few countries where the number of deaths has not decreased over the past few years, with the scope and […]

25 Oct 2020

Afghanistan, strage di donne allo stadio e di ragazzini nella moschea

Il Manifesto, 23 October 2020 The Italian left-wing daily quotes from a recent AAN report by guest author Andrew Quilty: DA FEBBRAIO IL CONFLITTO è cambiato. Gli americani e i Talebani non si fanno più la guerra, se non in circostanze particolari, comenei giorni scorsi nella provincia meridionale dell’Helmand, quando gli aerei statunitensi sono intervenuti per […]

23 Oct 2020

Fleeing the Taliban in the night, a family’s faith in peace wavers

Christian Science Monitor, 23 October 2020 The US news outlet quotes from Andrew Quilty’s recent report for AAN as a background to this story, that the U.S.-Taliban deal changed the pattern of conflict in favor of the insurgents, such that “the Taliban have little incentive to reduce violence,” according to an in-depth report last week […]

23 Oct 2020

Afghanistan’s War Victims Demand ‘A Just Peace’ With The Taliban

RFE/RL Gandhara, 20 October 2020 AAN’s Ehsan Qaane is quoted about contradictory positions in the Afghan government vis-à-vis victims’ representation in the Doha peace talks and, more generally, its approach to dealing with earlier war crimes (he had earlier reported about this at AAN): Despite the president’s remarks, there is a glimmer of hope, says […]

21 Oct 2020