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.

"Resolute Support" follows "Help and Cooperation"; the new mission will need a new logo. Photo: AAN

Three Birds with One Stone: Signing the BSA and NATO SOFA to project reliability

Kate Clark • Thomas Ruttig •

By signing long-delayed security agreements with the US and NATO on the second day of its existence (30 September 2014), the new Afghan leadership has hit at least three birds with one stone. It has projected an image of itself as reliable to Afghans and to its international partners, and it has secured an important […]

International Engagement Read more

A Very Happy Eid-e Qurban!

AAN Team •

Here at AAN, we’d like to wish all our readers a very happy Eid-e Qurban and that the upcoming year – and the long-awaited new government – may bring peace and stability to Afghanistan. For those who wish to learn more about Afghan Eid customs, have a look at this report about Eid sacrifices for Eid-e […]

Context and Culture Read more
The US handed over the Afghan side of Bagram eighteen months ago. The newly signed BSA suggests it will be ending foreign detentions too, by the end of the year. (photo: Tolo)

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (9): Bagram prison to close with BSA, 13 foreign detainees left

Kate Clark •

The US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), now officially called the Security and Defence Cooperation Agreement, a copy of which AAN has obtained, says the US shall not “maintain or operate detention facilities in Afghanistan.” It appears then, that the US foreign detention facility at Bagram, often referred to as the ‘other Guantanamo’, will close by […]

International Engagement Read more
President Ghani sworn in ny chief judge. Photo c/o ToloNews.

Elections 2014 (53): Ghani sworn in as Afghanistan’s new president

Kate Clark •

Afghanistan finally has a new president – and a chief executive officer (CEO). Ashraf Ghani’s first act after being sworn in was to sign a decree establishing the new position of CEO and then appointing to it his bitter election rival and now partner in government, Abdullah Abdullah, who was thereby enabled to also take […]

Political Landscape Read more

Elections 2014 (52): The not yet officially announced results – electoral maths with unknowns

Thomas Ruttig •

After over five months, Afghanistan has finally an election result … kind of. In a remarkable step, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced the winner of the run-off on 21 September 2014, but did not release the results – apparently one of Abdullah’s unbending conditions for reaching a final agreement on the national unity government. […]

Political Landscape Read more

Karzai struggles against foreign detentions – state releases Taleban?

Kate Clark •

In the last weeks of his presidency, President Hamed Karzai has again been trying to eradicate the last traces of foreign involvement in detentions, sending a commission to investigate the so-called Tor Jail, an American interrogation facility on Bagram airbase, and reactivating the Afghan Review Board, which had been sifting detainees transferred by the US […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Elections 2014 (51): Finally, a deal, but not yet democracy

Kate Clark •

After more than three months of audits and behind-the-scenes negotiation, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah signed a deal today to set up a government of national unity. The election ‘result’ was announced a couple of hours later, but the Independent Election Commission (IEC) declined to give any figures. It had been clear, all along, that […]

Political Landscape Read more
Portraits of Ghani and Abdullah. Photo c/o Tolonews.

Elections 2014 (50): Experience with ‘governments of national unity’ elsewhere

Thomas Ruttig •

In hindsight, it is difficult to find out who first had the idea of Afghanistan having a ‘government of national unity’ (GNU) as the way out of the Afghan electoral deadlock. Currently, however, it is promoted by almost all the international players and, at least in words – an agreement how to implement it is […]

Political Landscape Read more

Elections 2014 (49): Still deadlock, make or break

Kate Clark •

It has become difficult to write about the Afghan elections, not because nothing happens, but because it rarely amounts to anything significant enough to move things on. There are talks between the candidates, press conferences with little news, an audit nearing completion, phone calls from the American president, rumours and unease. The optimism of the […]

Political Landscape Read more

Elections 2014 (48): Key documents underwriting the electoral audit

Martine van Bijlert •

While the Abdullah team has already dismissed both the audit and its outcome, the IEC still needs to finalise the process to arrive at a new result. As a background to the audit and its tumultuous history, AAN has gathered a number of key documents in one place. These include the three main IEC decisions […]

Political Landscape Read more

The Study and Understudy of Afghanistan’s Ethnic Groups: What we know – and don’t know

Christian Bleuer •

From voting blocs to the share of power in government ministries to the composition of the insurgency, references to ethnic groups are frequently made in reporting and analysis. Accurate analysis requires a careful look at the complicated social lives and local politics in which members of these ethnic groups operate. But what is actually known […]

Political Landscape Read more
Afghanistan's electoral audit enters its final, critical phase. Photo: Martine van Bijlert, Kabul, August 2014.

Elections 2014 (47): Audit enters its final precarious phase

Martine van Bijlert •

While the two teams are trying to revive the political negotiations, the electoral audit is both nearing its end –with around 95 per cent of the ballot boxes reviewed– and moving into its most critical phase: deciding on the findings and arriving at a new result. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has already convened five […]

Political Landscape Read more

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