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.

Flash from the Past: Russian Advice on Afghanistan

AAN Team •

‘In fact, we [the Soviet Union] were the first to defend Western civilization against the attacks of Muslim fanatics. No one thanked us.’ This is only one of the core sentences in an op-ed I almost had missed. It was co-authored by ex-General Boris Gromov, now the governor of the Moscow region who commanded the […]

War and Peace Read more

Taleban Attack on Muhammad’s Birthday

Thomas Ruttig •

It was around 6.30 this morning when we were woken up by a violent blast. As it turned out, it was another of the ‘complex’ (or multiple) attacks using suicide bombers and ‘commandos’ armed with small arms for which the Taleban have regularly claimed responsibility. The main targets seem to have been two guesthouses in […]

War and Peace Read more

Elvis Ain’t Dead: The story of Marja

Thomas Ruttig •

He has been spotted in Marja (Helmand, Southern Afghanistan). The only problem is: Marja does not exist. Because it is not on Google Earth. And Operation Moshtarak in Helmand is a fake. But let me start from the beginning. Back in Kabul, as usual the unexpected happened: The rumour of the day did not come […]

Context and Culture Read more

Afghanistan in World Literature (II): Dr Watson Sent Packing

Thomas Ruttig •

With part II of this series, we present a few pieces of colonial literature, featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. This part, of course, is clearly not exhausted yet. An apparent survivor of another Afghan tragedy became famous amongst fans of crime literature: no one less than Dr Watson, assistant of the masterly […]

Context and Culture Read more

Dreaming of a pliable parliament and a ruling family

Martine van Bijlert •

President Karzai has changed the electoral law, driven by anger over an in his eyes over-interfering ECC, the desire to have a pliable parliament and a sense that it his right as a president to be in charge. The substantive changes in the electoral law have, as a result, focused on roughly four areas: gaining […]

Political Landscape Read more

After two years in legal limbo: A first glance at the approved ‘Amnesty law’

Sari Kouvo •

(Updated: 30 September 2017) – Impunity is certainly a problem in Afghanistan, but now impunity has been made into law. The so-called amnesty law (now titled the National Reconciliation, General Amnesty and National Stability Law) was published in the official gazette in December 2008 (Qaus 1387). While opinions differ about whether the law was formally passed […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

A reform of the electoral law?

Antonella Deledda •

The reform of the Afghan electoral law is moving again. ANTONELLA DELEDDA looks at the proposed amendments that are circulating in Kabul, at the question whther this can be done by presidential decree and whether this would be the urgently necessary ‘organic reform’ or mainly serves the interests of the current elite after the faulty […]

Political Landscape Read more

Recommended readings: 114,000 plus…

Thomas Ruttig •

With the US troop surge and announcements at and around the London conference that additional troops will be deployed from other NATO countries, NATO and its allies are now exceeding the number of troops the Soviet Union had sent to occupy the country between 1979 and 1989. This does not include contractors from private military […]

War and Peace Read more

Implications of Mulla Baradar’s Arrest

Thomas Ruttig •

With Mulla Baradar the operational leader of the Taleban movement has been captured. Mulla Baradar – this is a nom-de-guerre and his real name is Abdul Ghani – had been appointed one of the two deputies of Mulla Muhammad Omar when the movement reorganized after its collapse in late 2001. That made him the movement’s […]

War and Peace Read more

Wondering where all of this is going

Martine van Bijlert •

Back in Kabul, I am struck by the sense underlying most conversations that things are happening above people’s heads, out of their reach and largely unseen. The London conference seems to have confused more than it has clarified and the questions that are always latently present are becoming more pronounced: What are the foreigners doing? […]

International Engagement Read more

An Offensive Foretold

Thomas Ruttig •

When I checked the BBC website last night after watching the world premiere of the reconstructed famous 1927 German silent movie ‘Metropolis’ (a ‘don’t miss’ for all cineasts), the red ribbon for breaking news flashed: NATO and Afghan troops have started ‘Operation Moshtarak’ (Together) in Helmand. In Afghanistan, it was already after 2 am on […]

War and Peace Read more

Afghanistan Bird Watch

AAN Team •

The most underreported Afghan story of January 2010 already has been identified: One of the world rarest birds has been spotted in Badakhshan. Overshadowed by the coverage of the London conference, the BBCreported that scientists of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society found specimen of the large-billed reed warbler (photo), one of the rarest birds on earth, during […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

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