The Essential Field Guides | A portal to Afghanistan and the region

Afghanistan: The Real World Choices in Staying or Leaving

May 21, 2013 - (0) comments

The following piece was written by Anthony H. Cordesman and published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C. The United States cannot afford to blunder its way into staying in Afghanistan, or to blunder its way […]

Why Aid Workers Are Targets

May 15, 2013 - (0) comments

In this article published by The Globalist, Abby Stoddard explores why aid workers, particularly in Afghanistan, are increasingly being killed or kidnapped largely because of the military usurping of the humanitarian ideal for counter-insurgency purposes in an effort to win […]

Afghan Government Levies Taxes on US Contractors

May 14, 2013 - (0) comments

The Afghan government has levied nearly one billion dollars worth of business taxes on contracting companies working for the US government. A just published report by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) outlines the issues involved. According […]

Renewed civil war? British policy failures since 2001 also responsible

April 17, 2013 - (0) comments

A shorter version of this article by Lucy Morgan Edwards, author of The Afghan Solution, was published by The Guardian on 12 April, 2013. Reading some of the rose tinted evidence put forward by the FCO and MOD in a […]

Taliban Expecting Record Opium Crop

April 17, 2013 - (0) comments

TALIBAN EXPECTING RECORD OPIUM CROP, AS US NOT INCLINED TO STOP THE LUCRATIVE DRUG TRADE FROM AFGHANISTAN. Afghanistan is heading for a near-record opium crop, according to a report by the UN’s Afghanistan Opium Winter Risk Assessment. “Poppy cultivation is […]

Leaving Corruptistan: Washington Favors Exit over Fight with Karzai

April 07, 2013 - (0) comments

Declare victory and then leave. That seems to be Washington’s line in Afghanistan these days, writes Susanne Koelbl in the German weekly Der Spiegel. The United States has even caved in to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on a dispute over an […]

Afghanistan After the War Is peace possible?

April 04, 2013 - (0) comments

Anglo-Pakistani author and journalist Ahmed Rashid pragmatically explores the realities of more than 34 years of war and whether Afghanistan has a real chance for peace once the bulk of US-led Coalition forces pullout by the end of 2014. He […]

From Kabul love affair to first centre for Afghan history

March 28, 2013 - (0) comments

Many of us familiar with Afghanistan have known the extraordinary work that both Louis and Nancy Hatch Dupree have dedicated to this country. While their extramarital romance scandalised Kabul during the 1960s, their collection of documents now forms the heart […]

Crossborder trade in North curbed

March 28, 2013 - (0) comments

Merchants claim customs procedures at Hairatan checkpoint are riddled with corruption and red tape. Qayum Babak, a journalist trained by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, investigates the problem. Trade through Afghanistan’s main northern route has collapsed, and while officials blame […]

Neither heat nor gloom … Afghan post office delivers

March 27, 2013 - (0) comments

This piece was written by Tom A. Peter and published by The Christian Science Monitor. As the Afghan government struggles to develop, the post office has quietly managed to become one of the nation’s most efficient institutions – and with extremely […]

Iran behind water resources destruction in Afghanistan

March 26, 2013 - (0) comments

This piece, which seeks to highlight Iran’s involvement in dominating Afghan water supplies – a potential area for future conflict – was first published by Khaama Press on March 24, 2013. The neighboring countries of Afghanistan, specifically Iran and Pakistan […]

Excavating a future in Afghanistan

March 26, 2013 - (0) comments

The country sits atop oil, gas and mineral deposits that could be worth a trillion dollars. But building a commercial mining industry will be a rocky road. In this piece first published by the Los Angeles Times on March 24, […]

Afghanistan As It Once Was

March 22, 2013 - (0) comments

These photographs from the 1960s are remarkable – and sad – because they represent a bygone age when there was peace in Afghanistan. A totally different world than today. The Kabul in William Podlich’s photographs is an almost unrecognizable place […]

Afghan Scene Magazine – New February, 2013 Edition

March 21, 2013 - (0) comments

For those who don’t know Afghan Scene, this monthly magazine is a mine of information with background pieces and what’s going on in Kabul. Click here for the latest edition. (February, 2013) Letter from the Editor – By the Afghan […]

Villagers Take On Taliban in Their Heartland

March 21, 2013 - (0) comments

The following piece by Carlotta Gall, one of the most informed on-the-ground western journalists in Afghanistan, was first published by the New York Times on March 20, 2013. PISHIN GAN SAYEDAN, Afghanistan — An uprising against the Taliban that began […]

An Alternative Journalism: Re-engaging with one’s readers

March 21, 2013 - (0) comments

French editor, Patrick de St Exupery – a former foreign correspondent who has also covered Afghanistan – has come up with an old-fashioned but highly successful and profitable way of offering quality print journalism in the public interest to readers […]