Richard Walker is Professor of Tectonics at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford. He leads the Active Tectonics and Earthquakes Research Group, and is the Oxford lead of the UK Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics. The desert town of Tabas-e-Golshan, eastern Iran, offers welcome respite from the heat…
Eldaniz Gusseinov is a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the Haydar Aliyev Center for Eurasian Studies and a Columnist for Daryo In recent years, the relationship between Kazakhstan and Afghanistan has been changing significantly, driven by stronger economic and diplomatic ties. A major turning point came in December 2023 when Kazakhstan decided to remove the Taliban from…
Sophie Ibbotson is the Chairman of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and a consultant on economic development and water conflict in Central Asia and Afghanistan. My prediction for 2024 is that the Taliban will soon be given diplomatic recognition as the official government of Afghanistan. Embassies and consulates will start to reopen, sanctions will…
The Hugh Leach Memorial Lecture
His Royal Highness Prince Turki Alfaisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 22 September 2021, 14:00
Rupert Stone looks at the likely impact of coronavirus in Afghanistan and anticipates worrying consequences reaching far beyond the medical challenge On Eid this year, a bizarre scene unfolded in eastern Afghanistan. Government officials, led by the national security advisor, prayed at the grave of former socialist president and secret police chief, Mohammad Najibullah….
Sophia Nina Burna-Asefi is an undergraduate in Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. Born in London, she lived in Uzbekistan for 6 years and has been travelling extensively in Afghanistan for the past 9 years. She is a member of the RSAA. The absence of General Abdul Rashid Dostum, first vice president…
Jonathan Hibbert-Hingston and his wife Beth work for Operation Mercy in Khorog, Tajikistan. Jonathan will be giving a lunch-time lecture for the RSAA about some of their experiences in September. It was a slightly hazy afternoon when Nemat and I left our village on the outskirts of Khorog to go and look for his cows….
Malgosia Skowronska is a graduate of the War Studies Department of King’s College London, and the producer of Narkomen, an independent film on the problems faced by heroin addicts in Tajikistan. The day comes to an end. The sun had almost gone down behind the surrounding peaks of the Pamir Mountains. Mirzo, with his slow…
Karlos Zurutuza is a freelance reporter who contributes to a number of media channels including Al-Jazeera. Here, he writes on the complexities of covering one of the most off-the-radar conflicts worldwide: Balochistan. It had been four years since I last met Mr Purdely. The chain of uprisings in northern Africa and the Middle East that…
Matthew Leeming is an RSAA member who works in Afghanistan with Milio International to develop Afghan marble mines and the country’s capacity to process and export the stone. He is also co-author of the Odyssey Companion and Guide to Afghanistan. Here, he answers questions from the Asian Affairs Weblog:Â What is the state of trade…
