LISD held the culminating conference of its “Promoting Stability and Viability in Afghanistan and the Region” project, July 21-24, 2005 in Istanbul, Turkey. The goal of this conference was to look at the future of Afghanistan within the region and to address the challenges Afghanistan faces in security, development, and political evolution as it moves out of immediate post-conflict transition. The conference was arranged in cooperation with the Istanbul Policy Center of Sabanci University and was supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

The conference examined these issues from the perspective of infrastructure and economy, energy and natural resources, “hard” and “soft” security, and the range of trans-national and regional challenges including environmental and health stresses, trafficking, and the narcotics trade. This conference also focused on partnerships and the Post-Bonn role for principal donors – the EU, U.S., and Japan. Participants also reviewed ongoing regional projects and discussed the larger regional and bilateral partnerships necessary for Afghanistan and its neighbors to bolster the security, development, and transnational cooperation necessary to solidify the stability provided by the transition process.

This conference was private and off the record, designed to engage participants in creative examination of possible solutions. Participants included Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hikmet Cetin, Senior Civilian Representative of NATO to Afghanistan; Lt.General Karl Eikenberry, Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan; Ambassador Oguz Celikkol, Director General of theTurkish Foreign Ministry in addition to other members of the Afghan and regional governments, scholars and policymakers from the U.S., EU, Japan, Russia, and representatives of key multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations.