Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Reports

Reports – previously known as dispatches – are the flagship of the AAN website and our main type of publication. AAN reports are based on extensive desk and field research and provide timely and in-depth information and analysis.

Bonn 2: A Top-down Approach to Civil Society Again

Thomas Ruttig •

In November 2009, three months before the London Conference on Afghanistan, AAN’s Senior Analyst Thomas Ruttig wrote a blog under the title ‘A meaningful Afghanistan conference needs civil society involvement’. Re-reading it five months before the next one in the long series of Afghanistan conferences*, in Bonn again, he thought he can simply re-post it: […]

International Engagement Read more

Guest Blog: Ghori Cement – A loss-making goldmine

Mir Sediq Zaliq •

Under pressure to repay his loans to Kabul Bank, the president’s brother, Mahmud Karzai, has sold his shares in the Afghan Investment Company. This could open a new future for the country’s biggest cement factory, Ghori Cement in Baghlan, that has so far been plagued by nepotism, reports Mir Sediq Zaliq*, an Afghan journalist working […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

Najib Who? Or: A Faux-pas Transition Press Release

Thomas Ruttig •

Press releases of NATO and ISAF in Kabul are not known for their literary quality. Mostly, they inform matter-of-factually about successes of the Western troops and political progress achieved and often are full of euphemistic language, military neologisms and acronyms. Not different those of DVIDS, the ISAF Joint Command’s Defence Video & Imagery Distribution System. […]

War and Peace Read more

Looking at the Azra Hospital Attack (amended)

Thomas Ruttig • Fabrizio Foschini •

The suicide car-bomb attack that destroyed the civilian hospital of Logar’s eastern-most district Azra on 25 June was terrible even for Afghan standards, with now [amended: 29] registered dead and 53 wounded. Amongst the victims were reportedly 15 children waiting for immunisation as well as five toddlers; the 10-bed maternity ward completely destroyed. But the […]

War and Peace Read more

Guest Blog: Author’s Reply to AAN Reading ‘Afgantsy’

Rodric Braithwaite •

It is usually a mistake for an author to come back to a reviewer, but you raise a number of interesting and useful points, which made me think it would be worth breaking the rule, wrote Rodric Braithwaite*, author of ‘Afgantsy’ which primarily looks at the impact of the Afghan war on Soviet people. Here […]

War and Peace Read more

Talking about Civilian Casualties in Kabul (with comment)

Thomas Ruttig •

Last week, on 28 June, ISAF Kabul had invited for a half-day conference on the issue of civilian casualties. The attendance, at least during the first hour, was high-ranking, with Gen. David Petraeus, NATO SCR Simon Gass, NSC chairman Rangin Dadfar Spanta and deputy speakers of both houses of the Afghan parliament. They all left […]

War and Peace Read more

Guest Blog: Reconciliation Reloaded in Khost

Emilie Jelinek •

Once there was the Strengthening Peace programme, with it provincial branches, like here in Khost, to ‘reintegrate’ willing insurgent fighters. It failed because of corruption and a lack of political support. Now, there is its successor programme APRP, and it is unclear whether that’s just a new name on the same project. Our guest blogger […]

War and Peace Read more

Guest Blog: Who is Tayyeb Agha? (amended)

Anand Gopal •

After years of rumors of talks with the Taleban, the US is finally meeting a senior Taleban representative face-to-face. In a series of encounters this spring in Germany and Doha, it has been leaked to the press that US officials have met with Tayyeb Agha, a leading Taleban figure. But the world of the Taleban […]

War and Peace Read more

Parliamentary Crisis: The Supreme Court Steps In

Gran Hewad •

The resistance of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to implement the Special Electoral Court’s decision to replace 62 MPs due to alleged fraud, and the Supreme Court’s ruling that all decisions of the Wolesi Jirga are illegal until the 62 ‘new’ MPs take their place in parliament, have pushed this new institutional crisis to the […]

Political Landscape Read more

ATTACK ON KABUL INTERCONTI (updated)

Thomas Ruttig •

A group of six armed insurgents has stormed into Kabul Interconti hotel around 10 pm on 28 June. Around 22.40 local time, we heard a loud single explosion, followed by police cars with sirens approaching the area and heavy but sporadic small arms fire. The group resisted until 4.40 in the morning; the last three […]

War and Peace Read more

Guest Blog: Electoral Reform Must Start Now

Grant Kippen •

With the controversy between the Wolesi Jirga and the Special Election Court still continuing and throwing Afghanistan’s legislative into disarray, our guest blogger Grant Kippen(*) pleads for long-overdue election reform starting and bold steps now. There were two momentous announcements concerning Afghanistan this past week that will in their own and interconnected way have a […]

Political Landscape Read more

Khas Uruzgan violence and ISAF press releases

Martine van Bijlert •

About ten days ago I received news of a nightly ALP raid in Khas Uruzgan, that had resulted in one death, four detainees, several severe beatings, some plunder and a fair amount of local anger. So when I spotted an ISAF press release about a meeting in the district, I assumed it was related to […]

War and Peace Read more

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