Lessons from the West's Failure in Afghanistan

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 was swift, and its subsequent crackdown has been brutal. Most Western observers and policymakers were caught by surprise, especially given the trillions of USD that the West spent to transform Afghan state and society. Why did this unprecedented support fail? What changes in Western involvement might have generated a different outcome? More broadly, what lessons might we glean from the experience and what might they teach us more generally about the impact of development aid, humanitarian assistance, and other forms of Western support?

0:00 Welcome by Peter Loewen, Munk School Director, and Ed Schatz, CERES Director

13:43 Panel 1: What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?

2:23 Parwiz Kawa, Founding Member and Executive Director of 8AM MEDIA (Hasht-e-Subh Daily Newspaper)
David Michalski, Doctors without Borders
Bilal Sarwary, Afghan journalist
John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (USA)

2:23:24 Panel 2: Applying Afghanistan’s Lessons

Dan Fisher, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (USA)
Jennifer Murtazashvili, University of Pittsburgh
Shoaib Rahim, American University of Afghanistan
Janice Stein, University of Toronto
Co-Sponsored by the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Munk School, and the Asian Institute

Видео Lessons from the West's Failure in Afghanistan канала CERES at Munk