Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Special Reports

Special Reports – formerly known as thematic reports or briefing papers – are more substantive publications on subjects that are high on the policy agenda. Special Reports are all externally peer-reviewed.

Afghanistan’s Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency

Antonio Giustozzi • Mohammad Isaqzadeh •

Despite representing the bulk of Afghanistan’s post-2001 policing, the paramilitary dimension of the Afghan police has received little attention among analysts. In AAN’s latest report, ‘Paramilitary Policing in Context. The Risks of Expediency’, Antonio Giustozzi and Mohammad Isaqzadeh describe the origin and development of paramilitary policing in Afghanistan, and explore what this means for the […]

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A Knock on the Door: 22 Months of ISAF Press Releases

Alex Strick-Van-Linschoten • Felix Kuehn •

ISAF officials have long presented the capture‐or‐kill operations as one of the most effective parts of the military mission in Afghanistan. They regularly release large figures describing the number of ‘leaders’, ‘facilitators’ and ‘insurgents’ that were killed or captured, to illustrate the success of the campaign. AAN’s latest report, by Alex Strick van Linschoten and […]

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Another Pakistan Is Needed: Can Openings Emerge Post-Osama bin Laden?

Ann Wilkens •

This latest discussion paper by Ann Wilkens, Advisory Board member of the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) outlines key political challenges facing Pakistan and relevant for Afghanistan. The focus of the report is on possible political openings after the killing of Osama bin Laden. While still too early to speak of Pakistan as a failed state, […]

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The Layha: Calling the Taleban to Account

Kate Clark •

This latest report by Kate Clark, Senior Analyst with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), discusses the Taleban Code of Conduct or the Layha. The latest Layha was issued a year ago, and the two previous in 2006 and 2009. Each new version of the Code has been longer, more detailed and more polished. The Layha […]

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The Takhar attack: Targeted killings and the parallel worlds of US intelligence and Afghanistan

Kate Clark •

The targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden has given a boost to those in the US who believe this is also an effective strategy to defeat – or at least degrade – the Taleban in Afghanistan. This new AAN thematic report, by senior analyst Kate Clark, warns against this strategy, stressing that the legality of […]

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The Insurgents of the Afghan North

Antonio Giustozzi • Christoph Reuter •

In this report Antonio Giustozzi and Christoph Reuter describe the rise of the Taleban in northern Afghanistan. They discuss their recruitment and shadow administration, the conduct of the Afghan government, the effects of ISAF’s ‘capture-and-kill campaign’ and how all of this together contributes to a very unstable status quo. Until recently, the belief was widespread […]

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Afghanistan’s Early Reformists: Mahmud Tarzi’s ideas and their influence on the Wesh Zalmian movement

Thomas Ruttig •

This paper of its Senior Analysts Thomas Ruttig represents the opening of AAN’s new series of occasional papers. It addresses the influence of the thoughts of Afghan nationalist and moderniser Mahmud Tarzi (1865-1933), foreign minister under reformer-king Amanullah (1919-29), on Afghanistan’s 1940/50s pro-democratic opposition movement, the Wesh Zalmian (Awakened Youth). Mahmud Tarzi and the movement […]

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Afghanistan’s Drug Career: from War to Drug Economy

Citha D Maas •

This new AAN thematic report (with SWP Berlin) by German scholar Citha D. Maass looks into the beginnings and the evolution of drug production in Afghanistan during its three decades-long war. Starting with the Western-supported anti-Soviet jihad in 1979, drug production became a major base for the country’s war economy. After the fall of the […]

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Pashtunwali – tribal life and behaviour among the Pashtuns

Lutz Rzehak •

‘Doing Pashto: Pashtunwali as the ideal of honourable behaviour and tribal life among the Pashtuns’ – this new thematic report by Lutz Rzehak provides an overview about the way of life of the Pashtuns, often called Pashtunwali. The term features prominently when civilian and military actors in Afghanistan discuss ways of engaging the civilian population […]

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Untangling Afghanistan’s 2010 Vote: Analysing the electoral data

Martine van Bijlert •

This new briefing paper by Martine van Bijlert provides a backdrop to the controversies surrounding the 2010 parliamentary vote. It presents an overview of the main publicly available electoral data and maps what information has been provided, what conclusions can be drawn and what information is still missing – either because it was not shared […]

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Inciting the Believers to Fight: A closer look at the rhetoric of the Afghan jihad

Florian Broschk •

While AAN in a series of recent papers has recently been looking at features of the Taleban movement in general, now it takes a look on one of its specifics: their propaganda. Our author Florian Broschk has dissected a rare Dari-language propaganda video and the language used in it, a Salafi-influenced narrative of ‘oppression’ and […]

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Peace offerings: Theories of conflict resolution and their applicability to Afghanistan

Matt Waldman • Thomas Ruttig •

AAN’s new discussion paper by Matt Waldman and Thomas Ruttig takes a more theoretical approach to the current debate about reconciliation, often too narrowly described just as ‘talking to the Taleban’. It looks into various theories of conflict resolution and which insights they may offer for a peaceful solution of the Afghan conflict. Despite the […]

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