Afghanistan Studies Digital Library - Directory of Online Publications Relating to Afghanistan.

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Digital Library

• Afghan Constitution
• Ministry of Justice of Afghanistan
• Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation & Development
• Afghanistan Development Forum 2005
  "This meeting was an opportunity for the international community and for the Afghan government to sit together and to discuss the main features of the new partnership, that we take the Afghan process into a new phase, a long term phase, of consolidation of peace and of fulfillment of the many expectations." -- United Nations.
• Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)
  Sections include: Documents ; Presentations ; Links ; Reports ; Online Tools.
• Dr. Abdullah, Foreign Minister of Afghanistan
  Speech given at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 13, 2003.
  "Dr. Abdullah discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and answered questions from participants. Read transcript below, or click to listen to audio."

United Nations

 

• United Nations Development Program - Afghanistan Recovery
  Sections include: Poverty Reduction ; Strengthening Capacity in the Public Sector ; Gender Development ; Post-Conflict Recovery ; Disaster Management ; Recent News.
• UN Talks on Afghanistan
  Bonn, November/December 2001
  Includes Transcripts of Press Briefings and Notes for Correspondents
  • Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-Establishment of Permanent Government Institutions
• UNESCO - Afghanistan
  "UNESCO's action in the area of communication and information in Afghanistan."
  • News
  • Documents
• Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan
• Women in Afghanistan: Beyond the Media Portrayal to Action
  (New York, 20 November 2001)
  Archived Video of Live Webcast

UN General Assembly 61st Session (19-29 September 2006)
All Statements and Webcasts available online with only a selection listed below.

• Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Hamid Karzai - (20 September 2006)
  Video ; Text

NATO Topics - Afghanistan

• Declaration by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
  Official Text, September 2006.

The World Bank - Afghanistan
Sections include: Working for Results ; News & Events ; Data & Statistics ; Publications & Reports ; Projects & Programs ; Public Information Center ; Related Links.

The U.S. White House

• Rebuilding Afghanistan
• News and information on Attack Response
  • Radio Address by Laura Bush to the Nation (11/17/01)
    Re: Harsh treatment of Afghanistan women under Taliban rule.
  • Joint Statement on Afghanistan (11/13/01)
  • Bush Appraises Congress of Combat Operations in Afghanistan - (dead link) (10/10/01)

U.S. Department of State

• Documents & Publications
  
  • International Religious Freedom Report 2005
    Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
  • Afghanistan Human Rights Report 2004
• Rebuilding Afghanistan
  Sections include: Washington File ; News ; Issues in Depth ; Key Documents ; Related Issues ; Photo Galleries ; Videos ; Resources.

Central Intelligence Agency

• The World Factbook - Afghanistan
  Sections include: Geography ; People ; Government ; Economy ; Communications ; Transportation ; Military ; Transnational Issues.

Export.gov - Afghanistan
"Helping U.S. Companies Export"

• Doing Business in Afghanistan: A Country Commercial Guide for U.S. Companies (February 2006)

UK - 10 Downing Street

• Rebuilding of Afghanistan Begins in London (31 January 2006)

Afghan Red Crescent Society

• Health of Women and Children a Priority in Afghanistan (28 July 2001)
  "Afghanistan has the highest child mortality rates in the world with a quarter of all children not making it to their fifth birthday."

University of Wisconsin Madison Libraries

• Afghanistan Images from the Harrison Forman Collection
  "...documents the life and culture of Afghanistan in the late 1960s, several years before the Soviet Union invaded the country. The photographs were taken by Harrison Forman in 1969. The online collection consists of 174 images selected from a set of 733 slides of Afghanistan in the Harrison Forman Photographic Collection housed at the American Geographical Society Collection...The online collection is organized into six browsable [sic] subject categories: architecture, history, land, people, and transportation."

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
"...is an independent research organisation based in Kabul. AREU's mission is to conduct high-quality research that informs and influences policy and practice. AREU also actively promotes a culture of research and learning by strengthening analytical capacity in Afghanistan and facilitating reflection and debate."

• Research & Publications

American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) - Photo Archive
Part of the Digital South Asia Library

• Bamiyan Buddhas
  "This presentation has been put together to celebrate the beauty and power of the statues of the Bamiyan Buddhas that were located in Afghanistan."

Amnesty International - Publications on Afghanistan
Includes reports and news releases from 1996-

e-Ariana
An Ariana Media Publication
Sections include: News ; Articles ; Cartoons ; Opinion.

Asian Development Bank (ADB)
"...is a multilateral development finance institution dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific."

• Afghanistan
  Includes: Annual Country Report ; Country Strategy and Program ; Economic Trends and Prospects ; News ; Reports and Articles ; Projects ; Poverty Statistics ; Links ; Photo Gallery.

Asian Historical Architecture - Afghanistan
Maintained byTim Ciccone, Yunsheng Huang (UVA)

Asia Society

• Publications
  • Afghanistan's Reform Agenda: Four Perspectives (March 2002)
    By Sima Samar, Frederick Starr, Marvin G. Weinbaum, and Mohammed Ehsan Zia

AsiaSource

• Interview - Barnett Rubin
  "...author of several books on Afghanistan, including The Fragmentation of Afghanistan and The Search for Peace in Afghanistan. In this interview with AsiaSource, he discusses the conditions under which the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and the long-term implications of the proxy war there. Professor Rubin also explains the origins of the Taliban..."
  __________

BBC News - In Depth - Afghanistan's Future
Sections include: Latest News ; Photojournal ; Have Your Say on Elections in Afghanistan ; Who's Who ; In Pictures ; Background ; Features.

• Q&A: Afghan Election Guide
  Regarding September 18, 2005 Elections.

BBC News - In Depth - Afghanistan - Election News
October 9, 2004 Vote.
Sections include: Election Campaign ; Your Perspective [voter's views] ; In Pictures.

• Q&A: Democracy in Afghanistan

BBC News

• Who are the Taleban? (12/20/00)
• Osama bin Laden: America's most wanted (08/06/99)
• Afghanistan: 20 years of bloodshed (08/03/98)

Before Taliban : Genealogies of the Afghan Jihad
By David B. Edwards
California E-Editions - browse for free.

Brookings Institution

• A Conversation on Iraq and Afghanistan with Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
  A Saban Center Statesman's Forum, October 2006.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan
Destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001
Sections include: Location & History ; Buddhism ; The Statues ; Animations ; Destruction ; Computer Reconstruction ; Links.
By Prof. Dr. A.Gruen, Fabio Remondino, and Zhang Li
- Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing IGP-Eth Zurich, Switzerland

Canada World View
"...provides an overview of Canada's perspective on foreign policy issues and highlights the Government of Canada's international initiatives and contributions."

• Beyond Peace: Canada in Afghanistan
  "...focuses on the important diplomatic, defence and development contributions that Canada is making to the security and reconstruction of Afghanistan."
  Issue 20, Autumn 2003

Central Asia Caucasus Analyst
Johns Hopkins University - School of Advanced International Studies

• Twenty Theses on Afghanistan
  Prepared for Brookings Institution/Asia Society Conference (18 May 2001)
  By S. Frederick Starr

CNN.com Specials - Afghanistan: War and Transition
Sections include: Before The 'War On Terror' ; U.S.-Led Military Campaign ; Revolution & Rebuilding ; The Future.

Commonwealth Institute - Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA)

• War Report - Iraq War and Afghan Aftermath
  "Select articles, key documents, and analyses compiled and frequently updated..."
• Disappearing the Dead: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Idea of a "New Warfare"
  Project of Defense Alternatives Research Monograph #9, By Carl Conetta, February 2004.
  "Examines the Pentagonís treatment of the civilian casualty issue in the Iraq and Afghan wars..."

Contemporary Afghan Farsi Poetry
"Here you will find some Farsi/Dari poems by contemporary Afghan poets. Some of these contemporary poems are not easily accessible in print. Thus, the motivation behind creating this collection is to make a sample of these works available to the interested readers, especially, the Afghan community on the internet."

Council on Foreign Relations

• Capital Interview: Kabul Lacks Capacity to Govern
  Interviewee: Said Jawad ; Interviewer: Robert McMahon, February 28, 2007.
• Afghanistan's Uncertain Transition from Turmoil to Normalcy
  Council Special Report No. 12, April 2006.
  By Dr. Barnett R. Rubin, New York University.

European Union Relations with Afghanistan

• Country Strategy Paper 2003-2006

Feinstein International Center - Tufts University
"The Feinstein International Center strives to improve the lives and livelihoods of communities caught up in complex emergencies, war, and other crises."

• Humanitarian Agenda 2015 - Afghanistan Country Report
  Donini, A., 2006.

Foreign Affairs
Published by the Council on Foreign Relations

• Saving Afghanistan
  By Barnett R. Rubin, January/February 2007
• Arming Kabul, Disarming Cabals
  By Peter W. Singer, Brookings Institution, September 2004

Foreign Military Studies Office

• The Islamic Taliban Movement and the Dangers of Regional Assimilation
  By Abu Abdul Aziz Al-Afghani, Kabul - Afghanistan, 1997.
• Our Goal is to Restore Peace and Establish a Pure and Clean Islamic State in Afghanistan Nida'ul Islam Magazine (Call of Islam) April - May 1997 -- The Spokesperson of the Taliban Government to Nida'ul Islam.
• Whither the Taliban?
  by Mr. Ali A. Jalali and Mr. Lester W. Grau, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
  This article appeared in the 6 March 1999 issue of The Cyber-Caravan Under the title Taliban - a Model for "Islamicising" Central Asia?

Genders OnLine Journal

• Afghanistan's Forgotten Women
  By Rob Schultheis; Genders 28 1998

George Washington University - The National Security Archive

• The President's Daily Brief
  Documents: The 6 August 2001 PDB headlined "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US."
• The September 11th Sourcebooks
  National Security Archive Online Readers on Terrorism, Intelligence and the Next War
  • Volume II: Afghanistan- Lessons from the Last War (October 9, 2001)
    "...Archive experts John Prados and Svetlana Savranskaya draw on declassified records and the memoirs of former Soviet officials to examine Soviet policymaking, military operations, and lessons learned from the last war in Afghanistan, a bloody, ten-year conflict that pitted Soviet military forces against CIA-backed Afghan rebels."
  • Volume IV: The Once and Future King?
    From the Secret Files on King Zahir's Reign in Afghanistan, 1970-1973
    National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 59
    Edited by William Burr, October 26, 2001
  • Volume VI: The Hunt for Bin Laden
    Background on the Role of Special Forces in U.S. Military Strategy
    National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 63, December 2001.
  • Volume VII: The Taliban File
    National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 97.
    Edited by Sajit Gandhi
    "Marking the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the National Security Archive at George Washington University today posted on the Web a new collection of recently declassified U.S. documents covering the controversial rise to power of Osama bin Laden's former hosts in Afghanistan, the Taliban. "
  • Taliban File Part III
    U.S. Pressed Taliban to Expel Usama bin Laden Over 30 Times - Only Three Approaches in First Year of Bush Administration.
  • Taliban File Part III
    Pakistan Aided the Taliban in the 1990's
    Edited by Sajit Gandi
  • Taliban File Part IV
    Mullah Omar Called Washington in 1998
    National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book, No. 134.
    Edited by Barbara Elias.

Human Rights Watch

• Publications - Afghanistan

PBS - Frontline - Hunting bin Laden
"Investigating Osama Bin Laden, His Network, and His Role Terrorist Attacks on America." Includes an interview with Bin Laden.

• Soldiers of Islam: Origins, Ideology and Strategy of the Taliban
  By Aabha Dixit, Research Association, IDSA

Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
"IWPR builds democracy at the frontlines of conflict and change through the power of professional journalism. IWPR programs provide intensive hands-on training, extensive reporting and publishing, and ambitious initiatives to build the capacity of local media. Supporting peace-building, development and the rule of law, IWPR gives responsible local media a voice."

• Afghan Recovery Report

International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan
21-22 January, 2002 Tokyo, Japan
Includes: Photo Digest ; Speeches and Statements ; Press Releases and Conferences ; Related Documents.

International Crisis Group - Security in Afghanistan
Sections include: Elections ; What Needs to be Done ; Background ; Analysis ; News & Other Reporting ; Documents ; Maps & Statistics ; What You Can Do ; What Crisis Group Does.

• Afghanistan's Endangered Compact (English or French)
  Asia Briefing No. 59, 29 January 2007.
• Countering Afghanistan's Insurgency: No Quick Fixes
  Asia Report, No. 123, November 2006

International Crisis Group

• Elections and Security in Afghanistan
  Asia Briefing, 30 March 2004.

International Peace Academy
"...is an independent, international institution dedicated to promoting the prevention and settlement of armed conflicts between and within states through policy research and development."

The Iranian

• Limbs of no body: World's Indifference to the Afghan Tragedy
  Opinion piece by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 06/20/01.
• Not Welcome: Afghan Refugees Being Sent Back to Afghanistan
  Photos by Ali Khaligh, 06/02/2000

[Journal of American History] Teaching the Journal of American History

• Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State
  Nick Cullather, Volume 89 (Sept. 2002), 512-37.
  Sections include: The Article ; Teaching the Article ; Primary Sources ; Further Reading ; Links.

National Geographic Online

• Understanding Afghanistan: Land in Crisis
  Sections include: Interactive Map ; News ; Background ; Education ; Community ; In Our Store.
• Bibliography: National Geographic Resources on Afghanistan, Terrorist Attacks, More
• Webcast: Experts on Afghanistan and Mideast Post-September 11, 2001

PBS - America at a Crossroads
Companion website to the April 2007 series.
"...is a major public television event premiering on PBS in April 2007 that explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world ó including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on Americaís role overseas."
Films include: JIHAD: The Men and Ideas behind Al Qaeda ; Warriors ; Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience ; Gangs of Iraq ; The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom ; Europe's 9/11 ; The Muslim Americans ; Faith Without Fear ; Struggle for the Soul of Islam: Inside Indonesia ; Security versus Liberty: The Other War ; The Brotherhood.

PBS FRONTLINE - Return of the Taliban
Companion website to the October 2006 broadcast.
"FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith returns to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and presents a rare look inside this secret sanctuary..."
Sections include: Watch Full Program ; Pakistan: Jihad's Seedbed ; Inside the Lawless Tribal Areas ; The Region's New Fighters ; Interviews ; Readings & Links ; Transcript ; Teacher's Guide.

Physicians for Human Rights: Afghanistan Campaign

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

• Afghanistan Report (21 February 2006)

RAND Monographs (free online versions)

• On "Other War": Lessons from Five Decades of RAND Counterinsurgency Research
  "The challenges posed by insurgency and instability have proved difficult to surmount. This difficulty may embolden future opponents to embrace insurgency in combating the United States. Both the current and future conduct of the war on terror demand that the United States improve its ability to conduct counterinsurgency (COIN) operations."
  By Austin Long, 2006.

rebuild-afghanistan.com
"A virtual place to discuss collaborate and add new ideas in regard to rebuilding of Afghanistan ... main goal is to give all proceedings in regard to rebuilding of Afghanistan an organized face. This way, the impact will be far more effective."

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
"...as an independent political/social organization of Afghan women fighting for human rights and for social justice in Afghanistan."

• Online Reports
  • "Afghan Women under the Tyranny of the Brutal Fundamentalists"

South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG)

• The Raging Jihad - An Overview
  International Terrorism Monitor, Paper No. 162.
  By B. Raman, Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies.
  SAAG Paper No. 2054, 7.12.2006.
  [Re: Afghanistan, Iraq, & Thailand]

Time Magazine

• Raid on Afghanistan, Sudan (08/20/98)

UNHCR -The UN Refugee Agency - (dead link)

• Return to Afghanistan
  Sections include: Latest News ; Kabul Briefing Notes ; Photo Galleries ; Web Videos

UN Chronicle - Today, in Afghanistan

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime

• Afghanistan Opium Survey 2006

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

• Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan

U.S. Army

• Counterinsurgency
  "The manual is designed to fill a doctrinal gap. It has been 20 years since the Army published a field manual devoted exclusively to counterinsurgency operations..."
  Field Manual No. 3-24. Marine Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5, December 2006.
  [including Afghanistan]

United States Geological Service (USGS) - Publications

• Assessment of Undiscovered Technically Recoverable Conventional Petroleum Resources of Northern Afghanistan
  Open-File Report 2006-1253, September 2006.

United States Institute of Peace

• Afghanistan Five Years Later: What Can the United States Do To Help?
  USIPeace Briefing by Beth Ellen Cole and Kiya Bajpai, November 2006.

World Bank Group

• Afghanistan

World Health Organization

• Afghanistan

 

Maps

Afghanistan Maps
Perry-Castaneda Map Collection - University of Texas Map Collection

 

All the World's Maps
A Compilation of Each Nation's Maps - Including Cities
From EmbassyWorld.com

• Maps of Afghanistan
  Includes city maps of Herat, Kabul, Qandahar [Kandahar], Mazar-e Sharif.

International Crisis Group - Security in Afghanistan
Sections include: Elections ; What Needs to be Done ; Background ; Analysis ; News & Other Reporting ; Documents ; Maps & Statistics ; What You Can Do ; What Crisis Group Does.

National Geographic Online

• Understanding Afghanistan: Land in Crisis
  Sections include: Interactive Map ; News ; Background ; Education ; Community ; In Our Store.

Academic Discussion Lists

AfghanDev
"...is not a general news and discussion list. Rather, it is a restricted-circulation listserv intended to focus on humanitarian assistance and development issues in Afghanistan...List membership is limited to development agencies, foreign ministries, NGOs, journalists, academics, and others working on Afghanistan."

Institute for Afghan Studies
"...is a non-profit, non-political and independent organization, founded and run by young Afghan scholars from around the globe. The mission of the Institute is to be a center for research and a credible source of information about Afghanistan."

• Afghan-News Listserver