Oct 23, 2014 By: Sayed Mujtaba Hashimy Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is one of the few foreign militant groups operating in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. The group is associated with al-Qaeda, and the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. IMU is known as a disciplined organization with die-hard and experienced cadre. Its origin goes back to the
Oct 23, 2014By: Mr. Halimullah Kousary, Deputy Head of Research Over 60 years after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent intensification of nationalism in the Muslim world, Islamists have tried three distinct campaigns to gain power and establish Islamic states in the Muslim world. First was jihad in 1979 against the Soviet Union
Sep 30, 2014 By: Mr. Halimullah Kousary, Deputy Head of Research The aftermath of the Afghan 2014 presidential election confirms two problems of Afghanistan today. Firstly, after 13 years of relative progress and development in certain areas, Afghanistan is still a politically fragile country with serious political divisions among the Afghan powerbrokers and it thus
Jul 07, 2014 By: Hekmatullah Azamy, Research Analyst Government of Pakistan, on 15 June 2014, launched operation ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) - a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a safe haven for the Haqqani Network and other foreign militants since 2001. Afghanistan hailed the operation and in the meantime stressed that any
Oct 01, 2013 By Mayank Bubna, Research Fellow Election coverage for Afghanistan’s presidential post has long been anticipatory in nature – trying to predict what will happen the week of elections. Monitoring of the elections by various international parties is widespread, traditionally focusing on issues such as stuffing of ballot boxes, manipulation of voter registration
Oct 01, 2013By Hekmatullah Azamy, Research Analyst The last 12 years of fighting has taught all players involved in the Afghan conflict to end the ruthless battle through peace talks. In other words, all parties want peace more than ever before, even if faced with great challenges. This piece studies the background of peace initiatives
May 26, 2013 By Hekmat K. Karzai, Director The phrase intercultural dialogue is a relatively new phrase in the English lexicon that is widely used by politicians, development workers, and sociologists. The phrase itself, however, is complicated because there is no single, widely recognized definition of the term and for the most part, intercultural dialogue
May 14, 2013 By Mallory Sutika Sipus, Senior Research Analyst As negotiations remain on-going for the US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement, recent developments have yet to signal a significant shift in policy orientation regarding the post-2014 relationship between the United States and the Afghan state. As discussed in Part I of this series, US-Afghan Security Agreement:
May 14, 2013 By Mujib R. Abid, Researcher 1.Introduction: Governance in Afghanistan has had serious downfalls and is suffering from rampant corruption, weak rule of law, limited sub-national governance, and a stumbling national government. Revealing facts such as the country’s highly unbalanced population (60% under the age of 25)andthe resurgent ethnic tensions coupled with alarming
Jan 16, 2013 By Dr Zubair Popalzai, Deputy Head of Research The post-Taleban state-building exercise in Afghanistan facilitated and led by the United States and, to a degree, sustained by the Europeans has been informed by an overwhelming emphasis on an enabling environment for the markets as opposed to the stability of the government. Huntington