Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

2012: Another Year of Uncertainty for Afghanistan?

2012: Another Year of Uncertainty for Afghanistan?

January, 03 2012 | Abbas Daiyar

2012 will be a year of follow-up conferences for Afghanistan to achieve what the US and its NATO allies failed to do in 2011. Coming summer will prove a test of the security transition, capacity and capabilities of Afghan National Security Forces as insurgents will increase attacks in areas transferred to Afghan Army. The year will ...

Who is the “Enemy”?

Who is the “Enemy”?

January, 03 2012 | Dilawar Sharzai

After a decade of war in Afghanistan against terrorism for which thousands of lives have been sacrificed and billion of dollars utilized and that was intended to fight Taliban and Al-Qaida as Al-Qaida was given refuge by Taliban; US Vice President Joe Biden now mentions that Taliban are not the US's enemy. This clearly shows how much ...

Confusion: What Does Really Mr. Want?

Confusion: What Does  Really Mr. Want?

January 02, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani

Within recent few days Mr. President Karzai's position against apparently different issues was entirely confusing. However, it is not the first time that he reacts unexpectedly—as during former Pakistani President, he warned the neighbor about what can be briefed as Islamabad's double-game-play in the Afghanistan, and etc——but what ...

Why a Weak and Fragmented Parliament…?

Why a Weak and Fragmented Parliament…?

January 02, 2012 | Ali Reza Sarwari

As a democratic and formal political system, the government of Afghanistan is comprised of national assembly, executive and judiciary, each with distinctive and specialized responsibilities. The National Assembly tends to be, "the highest legislative organ" manifesting the will of people and representing the entire nation. (Afghanistan's Constitution ...

A Year of Failure

A Year of Failure

January 02, 2012 | Abbas Daiyar

2011 is gone. A year which we had wrongly expected to be decisive about the conflict in Afghanistan did not succeed to have any significant change in ground realities about the insurgency, talks with Taliban and promises of good governance and fight against corruption by the Karzai Administration. We had started the year with ...

Abnormal Urbanization and Social Disorder

Abnormal Urbanization and Social Disorder

January 01, 2012 | Jawad Rahmani

Recently I have participated in a workshop held in Ministry of Interior by an NGO aiming to help ministry leaders to develop strategic thinking and increase their capacity to deal with upcoming challenges in the lack of international community's military involvement. The workshop was for the capacity building to senior ...

India’s Growing Wealth and Deprivation

India’s Growing  Wealth and Deprivation

January 01, 2012 | Mehdi Rezaie

India has always been a mystical land and nation in Afghanistan. From the early years of the pre-independence era, Indian music and culture found its way into Afghan land, and Afghans found their first interactions with what is India of today with the melodies of Rubabs and Tablas. For much of the outside world as well as Afghanistan, India ...

Rebirth of Reconciliation in Pakistan

Rebirth of Reconciliation in Pakistan

January 01, 2012 | Farman Nawaz

Pakistan's history is full of criticism for army's intervention in politics but when Pakistan army and Pakistan People's Party reconciled to stop the military intervention in politics and to allow the politicians to come back to country to run the state since then the old companions of establishment united to sabotage this last hope of ...

The Future of Afghanistan’s Mineral Resources

The Future of Afghanistan’s Mineral Resources

December 31, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

The optimism about Afghanistan's mineral resources has once again been heightened by the reports of the deal with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to commence an oil exploration and extraction venture in Afghanistan. The contract will allow CNPC to develop, with a local partner – Watan Group, oil blocks in the northern ...

The Case of Sahar Gul Can Happen to Any Girl

The Case of Sahar Gul  Can Happen to Any Girl

December 31, 2011 | Mohd. Ahsan

Another shocking example of violation against women and negative impacts of child bride in Afghanistan cropped up last week when Afghan police rescued a 15 year old girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten inhumanely and locked up for five months in a lavatory. The reason is nothing but her resistance to her in-law who tried to force her to ...

Women are Human!

Women are Human!

December 29, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

The incidents violating women rights in Afghanistan have not been stopped though there have been comparative developments made in the last decade or so and billion of dollars spent. In fact the changes are prevalent only on the exterior while from within the Afghan society still lacks the modernity and development it needs in order to ...

The Anti-Corruption Campaign

The Anti-Corruption Campaign

December 29, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani

Let me start this article with my personal experience in India. In 2008, when I got to the country and needed to register myself in a police commissioner office in Hyderabad, Andhra Paradesh, I faced some problem in the process, much due to unfamiliarity with the procedure. But there were number of foreign students complaining about ...

Towards a New Paradigm – Reforming the State in Afghanistan

Towards a New Paradigm – Reforming the State in Afghanistan

December 28, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

More than a decade after the emergence of the new political dispensation in Afghanistan, it is becoming increasingly evident that the a) political, b) administrative, c) fiscal (financial) structures of national (central in Kabul) and sub-national (provincial and districts) ...

Why Karzai’s Peace Process Faces Failure?

Why Karzai’s Peace  Process Faces Failure?

December 28, 2011 | Mohammad Ahsan

With the growing insurgency that costs in valuable live, innocent people of Afghanistan on daily basis, get simply astonished what the reconciliation process with Taliban really mean? It seems like the process benefits the Taliban, not the peace in Afghanistan. No doubt, every war will have to end in reconciliation and ...

To Push the Peace Process!

To Push the Peace Process!

December 28, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

The Afghan Presidential office and the High Peace Council (HPC) seem to be getting calmer in a reaction to the news of Taliban office in Qatar. Soon after there were reports of Taliban office in Qatar, the Afghan government, especially President Hamid Karzai, was very much annoyed, thinking that Afghan government was kept out of any ...

Reasons behind Targeted Assassinations

Reasons behind  Targeted Assassinations

December 27, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani

"Afghan enemies once again succeeded to bring down another highly influential element", it was the headlines of domestic newspapers with minor differences. On Sunday, December 25, a senior leader to National Coalition Political Party, a member to Jamaat-e- Islami, Mr. Abdul Motalib Beeg, was killed in ...

Widening Gap between Troops and Security Transition

Widening Gap between  Troops and Security Transition

December 27, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan has not only faced opposition and threat from Taliban but every now and then they have faced assaults from their Afghan counterparts or juniors. There have been certain incidents when Afghan soldiers have turned violent against foreign troops and have either killed them or ...

A Battle to Save the Euro

A Battle to Save the Euro

December 27, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

The European financial crisis has entered a new phase with the Brussels Summit of the European leaders earlier this month throwing some new twists and turns to this long saga. The summit was widely thought to be a major milestone in the European countries' battle with the ongoing sovereign debt crisis and their efforts to save ...

The Elusive Responsible Government

The Elusive Responsible Government

December 26, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

Afghanistan, over the past one decade, has seen the peak of efforts to improve the state of affairs in the country. The end-result of more than a decade of intense efforts is now evident for all to see – improvements in the areas of public administration, public service delivery, jobs and employment and the overall economic ...

Military Withdrawal is not a Sign of Failure

Military Withdrawal is  not a Sign of Failure

December 26, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani

According to reports, around ten thousand US troops are about to leave the country within upcoming days. It is part of the security transition process which started earlier this year. President Obama previously announced that around 33 thousand US combatant troops would be withdrawn within months. Reportedly, the remaining 23 ...

Trapped in Contradiction

Trapped in Contradiction

December 26, 2011 | Nasruddin Hemati

There have been incidents and approachescausing divergence in US-Afghan relations. The two countries have had the closest relation since ouster of Taliban and establishment of the new democratic system here in Afghanistan. Since then, both countries' government officials have complained about the shortfalls ...

Afghanistan’s Urban Crisis Needs to be Addressed

Afghanistan’s Urban Crisis Needs to be Addressed

December 25, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

Afghanistan has seen an impressive growth in urbanization in the years following the ouster of Taliban in 2001. The urban sprawl of Afghan cities and towns now expand beyond their old limits, embracing outlying areas in suburbs where living was unthinkable merely a decade ago. Kabul, or to be precise the Greater Kabul, leads...

Afghanistan 2014: Starting up Mining Boom Crucial to Financial Survival of Army and Government

Afghanistan 2014: Starting up Mining Boom Crucial to Financial Survival of Army and Government

December 25, 2011 | Latif Mohammadi

In my article 'Afghanistan 2014: Risks of government collapse' published in Outlook Afghanistan on Nov 14, 2011, I identified financial shortfall to defence budget of Afghanistan beyond 2014 as one risk that could bring about total collapse of Afghan army and government. Owing to disrepute the Afghan ...

Afghanistan Needs Long-Term American Assistance

Afghanistan Needs Long-Term American Assistance

December 24, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

There are many Afghan people some among the Afghan intelligentsia as intellectuals and high-ranking government officials, who openly criticize the U.S.' presence and involvement in Afghanistan and insist that Afghanistan can stand back on its feet and manage its affairs without American involvement. They ...

Night Raids and Peace Process

Night Raids and Peace Process

December 24, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

The prospects of security in Afghanistan seem very much dubious. Among the different tactics that the NATO troops have always believed in to be very much useful against the terrorists has been the night raids. Through the night raids they have been able to achieve remarkable goals but at the same time they have been very much ...

Globalization and Afghanistan

Globalization and Afghanistan

December 24, 2011 | Zabihullah Hussain

The term "Globalization" which has changed the world to a smaller village, covers a wide range of political, economic and cultural trends. Globalization in popular discourse is often treated as the synonym for one or more of the following phenomena. The pursuit of classical liberal (or "free market") ...

Political Office for Taliban: a Dangerous Move

Political Office for Taliban:  a Dangerous Move

December 22, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

Talks and meetings with the Taliban, spearheaded by the Americans, have been resumed after the initial contacts had ended in failure. Qatar and Germany were the two countries that had facilitated the process of outreach and confidence-building between the two sides. Occasional contacts and meetings led to more serious...

“We Must Not Deceive Ourselves!”

“We Must Not Deceive Ourselves!”

December 22, 2011 | Dilawar Sharzai

Afghan government, though was much inactive after the death of High Peace Council Chief Burhan ud din Rabbani as far as reconciliation process is concerned, has once again become very much involved and optimistic about the process. Though the response of Taliban has not been very much satisfactory, the governmental ...

Withdrawal Shacks the Tree of Democracy in Iraq

Withdrawal Shacks the  Tree of Democracy in Iraq

December 22, 2011 | Jawad Rahmani

Though the American military withdrawal started according to fixed schedule, many maintain about the essentiality of American presence for a longer period. Why US combatant troops left when there is no guarantee for stable and democratic Iraq? Washington has already paid a lot. The war has cost it too much. So, why it is going to put ...

Humanizing the Monster 

Humanizing the Monster 

December 21, 2011 | Dr. Mohammad Taqi

In his foreword to Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef's book, Professor Barnett Rubin of New York University sets the stage for the launch, ostensibly, of a refreshingly authentic work of this inaccurate and revisionist take on contemporary Afghan history.
My Life with the Taliban, written by the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, has been praised across the board by the media ...

Turkey and the Changing Regional Power Dynamics

Turkey and the Changing Regional Power Dynamics

December 21, 2011 | Mehdi Rezaie

The cause of Palestine seems to have turned into the holy grail of Middle-Eastern politics. More than a crusade for finding a solution to the decades-old conflict, wading through the waters of the Arab-Israeli feud has become a springboard towards fame, name and influence for the more ambitious countries ...

Cyber Armies, Economic War and Financial Market

Cyber Armies, Economic War and Financial Market

December 21, 2011 | Musa Khan Jalalzai

Recent cyber technology development and its direct links with economic War have brought about many changes to the financial market and economic security of the United Kingdom. In my previous articles on cyber terrorism, what I had predicted about the abrupt cyber attack on UK state institutions ...

Profile of Iraq’s War Sealed

Profile of Iraq’s War Sealed

December, 20 2011 | Jawad Rahmani

The US combatant troops left Iraq after years of engagement. When they invaded the country, there were thousands welcoming them and thanking former US President, Mr. Bush for ending the decades-long dictatorship. Initially, streets of Baghdad and other cities across the country looked friendly to American troops, but day by day ...

Peace Process: Need for a Clear Strategy

Peace Process: Need  for a Clear Strategy

December, 20 2011 | Mohd. Ahsan

As the international troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan by 2014, what is likely to take place, sooner or later, is a political settlement with Taliban. Political pundits maintain if the United States is to get rid of Afghan war and portrait it as a triumph to the world, there is a need for a political solution. If other words ...

The UK Olympic Security Challenges

The UK Olympic  Security Challenges

December, 20 2011 | Musa Khan Jalalzai

In 11 March 2011, government announced the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Safety and Security Strategy which guarantees delivering a secure game. This strategy, which focuses on five areas; protect, prepare, identify and disrupt, command, plan and resource and engage, will be dealt under the principles of ...