Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Ann Wilkens

Cover of "Directorate S: The CIA and America’s secret wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016" written by: Steve Coll

“The US’s Greatest Strategic Failure”: Steve Coll on the CIA and the ISI

Ann Wilkens •

“Directorate S” is Steve Coll’s second major study of the CIA’s role in recent Afghan wars. While “Ghost Wars” chronicled the years 1979-2001, “Directorate S” – referring to a subdivision of Pakistan’s inter-services intelligence directorate that covers Afghanistan – takes up the story in 2001 and follows it through to 2016. AAN Advisory Board member […]

Regional Relations Read more

To Say It Like It Is: Norway’s evaluation of its part in the international intervention

Ann Wilkens •

Norway has published the first comprehensive evaluation of one country’s contribution to the international intervention in Afghanistan. The evaluation was conducted by a government-appointed commission led by Bjørn Tore Godal, a former foreign and defence minister. However, most commissioners were independent researchers. The ‘Godal report’, as it has become known, is a candid and sharp […]

International Engagement Read more

Member of AAN’s advisory board Ann Wilkens on the Afghan minors seeking asylum in Sweden – March, 2016

AAN Guests •

Ambassador Ann Wilkens, member of AAN’s advisory board and the former Swedish Ambassador to Afghanistan and Pakistan discusses the case of Afghan minors seeking asylum in Sweden. Note: In the first answer if the figures are not very audible. She said that around 15 percent of the Swedish population is born outside Sweden.  

Podcasts Read more
Screenshot of a Svenska Dagbladet newspaper article picture: "Refugees from Afghanistan coming ashore on Lesbos in Greece..." (Photo Credit: YANNIS BEHRAKIS / Reuters)

An Afghan Exodus (2): Unaccompanied minors in Sweden

Ann Wilkens •

The increased refugee influx into Europe is testing cooperation within the European Union, has led to attempts to close borders and is affecting domestic politics. AAN advisory board member Ann Wilkens looks at the Swedish example. Sweden has seen more asylum seekers per head of population than any other European country and liberal asylum policies […]

Migration Read more
Map: Major Ethnic Groups of Pakistan in 1980, Source: Wikipedia

The Crowded-Out Conflict: Pakistan’s Balochistan in its fifth round of insurgency

Ann Wilkens •

In the international discussion on Pakistan´s many problems, the low-level conflict in its Balochistan province does not get much attention. The issue of nuclear arms, for instance, is considered more immediately frightening; Balochistan is just the area where these arms are tested. But the province is also the arena for a long-standing, complex and multi-faceted […]

Regional Relations Read more

A Delicate Balance: The regional puzzle surrounding Pakistan’s decision to stay out of Yemen

Ann Wilkens • Sudhansu Verma •

Power relations and cooperation patterns are changing around Afghanistan. Its two most intrusive neighbours, Pakistan and Iran, are both at a stage where long-set behaviour seems to be tilting in different directions, with linkages to China (in the case of Pakistan) and the USA (in the case of Iran). At the same time, Pakistan and […]

Regional Relations Read more

A Lot to Worry About: Pakistan on the Eve of Elections

Ann Wilkens •

The election in Pakistan on 11 May 2013 is just around the corner – but it has not drawn much attention in international media. A new AAN Briefing Paper by Ann Wilkens, ‘A Lot to Worry About: Pakistan on the Eve of Its First Democratic Transition’, who is a member of AAN’s Advisory Board, looks […]

Special Reports Read more

Put Principles Back at Centre-Stage: Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Ann Wilkens •

While the international community focuses on transition and disengagement from Afghanistan, women´s rights – invoked to justify the 2001 anti-Taleban intervention and thereafter used whenever handy – have again been relegated to the back burner. The continued prioritisation of prosecuting women for ‘moral crimes’ while – despite some recent high-profile cases – under-emphasising rape cases […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Pakistan: There Is Also Good News

Ann Wilkens •

Disturbing news is coming out of Pakistan at such a pace that one item tends to crowd out the other. For example, how much of a mark have the millions of flood-stricken, homeless people in the Indus delta left on the international media scene? Even in Pakistan itself, their fate is not prominent any more. […]

Regional Relations Read more

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, […]

Special Reports Read more

Talibanrörelsens uppkomst och drivkrafter: en bakgrund inför Bonn II-konferensen om Afghanistan i december 2011

Ann Wilkens •

Ann Wilkens, FOI (Stockholm), background paper FOI-R–3243–SE, August 2011 (in Swedish) From the summary: The aim to this study is to give an in depth description of those destructive forces, inside and outside of Afghanistan, that oppose the international intervention and contend its goals. Over the last few years, the Afghan Taliban have expanded their […]

External publications Read more

Fire at the Durand Line

Ann Wilkens •

Since mid-June, warming relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have run into serious trouble again. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan (and ISAF) of doing nothing to stop militants from attacking Pakistani border posts and villages, Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of shelling villages in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, killing civilians and causing hundreds of families to flee. AAN Advisory Board […]

Regional Relations Read more

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