Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: trade

trade

The Cost of Support to Afghanistan: New special report considers the reasons for inequality, poverty and a failing democracy

Kate Clark

In a new AAN special report, Kate Clark considers the apparent paradox that despite almost two decades of international support to Afghanistan, poverty for most Afghans has deepened. She also explores the gap between the promise of the 2002 Bonn Agreement and 2004 constitution, a multi-ethnic, fully representative government, a democracy with strong checks and […]

Special Reports Read more

The Cost of Support to Afghanistan: New special report considers the causes of inequality, poverty and a failing democracy

Kate Clark

A new AAN special report looks at why the political vision of the 2002 Bonn Agreement and 2004 constitution with its promises of a representative democracy has failed to materialise. It finds answers in the huge levels of unearned foreign income that has flowed into Afghanistan since 2001, both aid and the money spent by […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
Mirai Bazaar, Andar District, Ghazni Province - March 2013. Photo: Fazal Muzhary

Finding Business Opportunity in Conflict: Shopkeepers, Taleban and the political economy of Andar district

Fazl Rahman Muzhary

Even in times of war, people still need to buy food and other essentials and shopkeepers still need to sell. But when frontlines shift and military masters change – due to insurgency, uprising or rising government power – how can shopkeepers react to try to survive the situation? Indeed, how can they try to find […]

War and Peace Read more

Going in Circles: The never-ending story of Afghanistan’s unfinished Ring Road

Qayoom Suroush

Since the presidential campaign and during trips abroad President Ashraf Ghani has been promising to turn Afghanistan into an “Asian roundabout” for regional trade and transit. However, for this, Afghanistan would need to improve its transport systems and build new and better roads. That is probably why, in his first cabinet meeting, on 2 October […]

Economy, Development, Environment Read more
Decades before Point Zero: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev on a state visit to Afghanistan in 1955. Photo: archive

From Point Zero to ‘New Warmth’: Russian-Afghan relations since 1989

Thomas Ruttig

After the Soviet occupation years, Afghan-Russian relations were on absolute zero. But post-Soviet Russia has worked carefully on improving the situation step by step. This strategy is based on an about-face under Yeltsin: dropping Najibullah and building a relationship with the mujahedin, beginning in 1992. In recent years, mounting Afghan-US and Russian-US tensions have made […]

Regional Relations Read more