Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Anand Gopal

Ideology in the Afghan Taliban: A new AAN report

Alex Strick-Van-Linschoten • Anand Gopal •

The Taleban’s ideology has transformed over the past two decades. While the movement once typified a ‘traditionalist’ Islam – that is, it sought to articulate and defend a particular concept of Islam found in southern Pashtun villages – it is now, in its insurgency phase, closer to forms of political Islam espoused in the Arab […]

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The Taleban in Qatar (1): Head of office Tayyeb Agha

Anand Gopal •

The opening of the Taleban’s political office in Doha brought the slither of a clandestine insurgent movement into the public eye. But just who is in the office, about to negotiate with the US and the Afghan government – if, that is, all sides can sort out protocols and procedures? The first of three pieces […]

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 […]

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Flash from the Past: Missed Opportunities for Reconciliation

Anand Gopal •

Our guest author Anand Gopal (*) looks back how chances for integrating Taleban into Afghanistan’s past-2001 political system were squandered and how the alienation of leading former commanders in Kandahar became a key motivating factor in sparking the insurgency. Therefore, the original article had the following sub-line: ‘The Victor’s Hubris and the Failure of Reconciliation’. […]

Context and Culture Read more

Talking to the Taleban: Who’s under pressure now?

Anand Gopal •

The last US plan – to have a more broad-based reconciliation process only after its military would regain the upper hand on the battlefield – has not worked. The surge has not shifted the momentum. Not the Taleban but in reality the US are under pressure, and fundamental questions open about how and where a […]

War and Peace Read more

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