Increased Optimism for Future: Poll
11 January 2010
Afghans More Optimistic for Future, Survey Shows, BBC News, 11 January 2010;
EXCERPT: "Most Afghans are increasingly optimistic about the state of their country, a poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC News and Germany's ARD shows. Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction - a big jump from 40% a year ago. Of those questioned, 68% now back the presence of US troops in Afghanistan,...
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Anti-Polio Campaign Unifies Taliban, Govt, and IGOs
11 January 2010
Risky Ally in War on Polio: The Taliban, The Wall Street Journal, 9 January 2010
EXCERPT: "Knocking on door after door, thousands of volunteers fan out every month across southern and eastern Afghanistan, vaccinating children against polio, a disease eradicated almost everywhere else in the world. [...] The antipolio campaign brings together the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai's central government, Unicef and the World Health...
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Norway's Whole-of-Government Approach in Afghanistan
11 January 2010
Cedric H. de Coning, Niels Nagelhus Schia, Helge Lur's, and St?le Ulriksen, [pdf], Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt // Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 7 January 2010
EXCERPT: "Norway has been a prominent supporter of the UN's Integrated Approach and has actively contributed to the development of NATO's Comprehensive Approach. Norway's own...
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The State of the Afghan State
11 January 2010
Anders F?nge, [pdf], Afghanistan Analysts Network, 8 January 2010
EXCERPT: "The most fundamental problem in the present conflict lies with the Afghan government and its international allies, the lack of state services and justice in rural areas, corruption, absence of local governance structures at the expense of informal often corrupt networks, high rates of unemployment, the appalling lack of coordination...
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