Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Fabrizio Foschini

Sugar trapped on the Silk Road

Fabrizio Foschini •

For many observers of Afghanistan, local and foreigner, Pakistan has become, through the years, an indispensable part of the political equation, its image increasingly darkened by the spread of conflict to its own territory and because of the the charge of interference in the Afghan conflict. Pakistan itself, its politics, society and economy, and especially […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more

How outside interference politicised the Achin land conflict

Fabrizio Foschini •

Reading the news in the morning sometimes brings big surprises. Even before a suicide car rammed into a US military convoy on Kabul’s Dar-ul-Aman road yesterday, causing the heaviest death toll among ISAF troops ever in the capital, the AAN office was already puzzled by another event: the latest bloody outcome of the years-old land […]

War and Peace Read more

‘The big hope has been replaced by a big concern’: the Ten Years anniversary in the Afghan Press

Fabrizio Foschini •

In Afghanistan it is always a good time for stock-taking. The ten year anniversary of the US-led intervention on 7 October, though, did offer an unmatched opportunity to do so for many commentators. AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini had a look at what the Afghan printed press has been saying on the occasion and what attitudes their […]

International Engagement Read more

Nuristan in Fall

Fabrizio Foschini •

After a tough start, Nuristan province has passed the summer without further serious traumas. Still, all the pre-existing concerns about an insurgent takeover of the whole province are still there, just probably postponed to next year depending on the early onset of winter. In order to prevent this from happening, it is high time to […]

Political Landscape Read more

Another Longest Day in Kabul

Fabrizio Foschini •

As the sound of automatic weapons and rockets died down, hopefully not to resume soon in Kabul, the city went into the night without knowing the final outcome of today’s battles. Earlier during the day, Fabrizio Foschini and others at AAN could only listen to the sound of it coming through the wind, and hope […]

War and Peace Read more

The Enteqal Seven (7): Opportunities and Concerns in the North

Fabrizio Foschini •

More than one month has passed since Mazar-e Sharif was officially transitioned to the responsibility of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), along with the cities of Herat, Lashkargah and Mehtarlam, the provinces of Bamian and Panjshir, and most of Kabul. In the last of this series of blogs, AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini, with the help […]

War and Peace Read more

Nine out, nine in: 240 in between

Fabrizio Foschini •

Yesterday, at the beginning of the first parliamentary session after Eid holidays, the Wolesi Jirga shut its doors to the nine MPs who had been excluded by the Independent Electoral Commission, and part of it welcomed the nine newly declared winners instead. At the same time, part of the MPs protested (outside the Parliament) against […]

Political Landscape Read more

Bad Lieutenants in Nimruz

Fabrizio Foschini •

Nimruz lies at one of the forgotten edges of Afghanistan, so forgotten that it is possibly the province generating the lowest amount of news per square kilometre. A most brutal and brazen episode of violence involving the police there offers AAN’s Fabrizio Foschini the occasion to report on the province and its main feature – […]

War and Peace Read more

Conflicts in the East, part II

Fabrizio Foschini •

Coalition’s concerns arising from the increasingly aggressive and assertive behaviour of insurgent groups, or from their very identity and international connections, are not limited to Loya Paktia and the locally dominant Haqqani network. Following Petraeus’s guidelines and moving further East, one arrives in what has sometimes been termed Loy Nangrahar (Nangrahar, Laghman, Kunar, Nuristan – […]

War and Peace Read more

Conflict going East, conflict going on

Fabrizio Foschini •

The US-led Coalition has declared that its troops’ new strategic focus will be on eastern Afghanistan, after its claims of gains made in southern Afghanistan last year. Although the bad security situation in the East is not new, the recent emphasis on it may be mainly linked to the increased interest (and concern) of the […]

War and Peace Read more

The Enteqal Seven (6): What is left to transition in Kabul

Fabrizio Foschini •

Against the blazing red background of increasingly brazen attacks carried out inside the capital, Kabul province moves towards the imminent transition of security. How this is going to affect the situation in the province, as the city and most of the districts have already been transitioned de facto in 2008-09, is not clear. However, it […]

War and Peace Read more

Where criminals forgive themselves

Fabrizio Foschini •

The Afghan Civil Society Forum (ACSFo) today released a report titled ‘How People Define Violence and Justice in Afghanistan (1958 – 2008)’. Prepared by ACSFo with the funding of the Heinrich-Bӧll-Stiftung, the report provides a valuable insight into Afghans’ perceptions of these two concepts, drawn by their extensive experience of at least the first of […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

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