The Insurgents of the Afghan North
05 May 2011
In this report Antonio Giustozzi and Christoph Reuter describe the rise of the Taleban in northern Afghanistan. They discuss their recruitment and shadow administration, the conduct of the Afghan government, the effects of ISAF’s ‘capture-and-kill campaign’ and how all of this together contributes to a very unstable status quo.Until recently, the belief was widespread that the Greater North was immune from Taleban infiltration....
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South Asia and Afghanistan: The Robust India-Pakistan Rivalry
05 May 2011
Views on the relationship between Afghanistan and its neighbouring countries vary widely, with fundamental consequences for how one understands the conflict, and what policies one finds constructive. Cognizant of the roles of actors in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region, and excluding neither the importance of Afghan domestic factors nor global forces, this paper focuses on the way that the India-Pakistan conflict – the primary security...
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Afghan-US Strategic Agreement to Focus on "Economy Fundamentals"
05 May 2011
Strategic agreement between Afghanistan and the US is beneficial to the country, Head of National Security Council said on Wednesday. Head of National Security Council Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Afghan side has submitted some preconditions to the US side before the agreement is sealed between the two nations. Speaking at the parliament Afghan Foreign Minister highlighted that agreement would not only focus on the fight against insurgency, but construction...
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Afghans Rally to Oppose Karzai, Taliban Deal
05 May 2011
More than 10,000 people gathered Thursday in Kabul to oppose reconciliation with the Taliban and the involvement of Pakistan in any peace deal, warning that it would be a betrayal of the Afghan people’s long fight against extremism. The meeting, organized by the former intelligence director, Amrullah Saleh, and headlined as well by Abdullah Abdullah, a former presidential candidate, was a frontal attack on the current government’s policies,...
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