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
Jan 16, 2013 By Mallory Sutika Sipus, Senior Research Analyst On 2 May 2012, US President Barak Obama and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan signed a Joint Partnership Agreement (JPA) that reiterated the two countries’ shared commitment to Afghanistan’s future and a continued diplomatic partnership between nations. More importantly, the partnership agreement called for the
Oct 09, 2012 By Mallory Sutika Sipus On 23 September 2012, several years of progressively strengthening Sino-Afghan relations were cemented when President Hamid Karzai received a visit from Zhou Yongkang, China’s Domestic Security Chief and a member of the Politiburo of the Communist Party. While the visit was unannounced publically, it signified the first visit
Oct 04, 2012 By: Khatira Zearmal One of Afghanistan’s policy aims is to become a pluralist democracy ; however, there is a mounting fear as to what will happen after NATO forces hand over control to the Afghan government and by extension, to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) who will henceforth maintain peace and
Jan 31, 2012 By: Halimullah Kousary Insider attacks have turned into a grave concern for the ISAF forces in Afghanistan. These attacks can be defined as those carried out on the ISAF forces through Taliban recruits from within the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP) or through a Taliban member uniformed
Jan 31, 2012 By: Brian R. Kerr Indian and Pakistani competition for influence in Afghanistan is not a recent phenomenon. Ever since the partition of South Asia and the creation of the Durand Line, India and Pakistan have been grappling for influence over their historically weaker neighbour, Afghanistan. Academic work on Indian-Pakistani competition has waxed