Event details

This international seminar will bring together eminent experts who have lived and shaped events in and around Afghanistan post 9/11 and in the time of the bombings of Tora Bora – a mountain range in North East Afghanistan.  They will address critical perspectives of Afghanistan’s history, society, politics, economy, and the strategic situation at hand. The speakers will also analyze important developments in and around Afghanistan and the Western intervention under US Leadership, authorized by UN SC resolution and under NATO’s Article 5, up to 2004 and the Loya Jirga.  Their insights and analysis should be both educative and illuminating, but also assist in meaningful interpretation of today’s situation in Afghanistan and the search for appropriate next steps.

This conference - chaired by Prof. Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Founding Director, LISD, Princeton University - is to convene experts, diplomats, and military leaders who he has been working with since Spring 2001  on the ‘emerging security challenges in West South Asia’, in an effort to develop strategies for peaceful developments for then post-Taliban Afghanistan and the region.

*IMPORTANT: At this time, only Princeton students, faculty, and staff who are permitted on campus are welcome to attend the event in person in the Cyril Black Conference Room, 019 Bendheim Hall.  Due to Princeton University Covid restrictions, we are obligated to keep a record of every person that attends. Therefore, in order to attend the event in person, you must RSVP.  

There will be a Zoom link provided for those who RSVP and would like to join remotely. 

Event Agenda

Thursday, November 11 – 04:00 PM  <br />The Onset of American and Western Action in Afghanistan – A Princeton Perspective 

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, Founding Director, Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University  Robert Finn, Former Ambassador of the United States to Afghanistan; former Ambassador to Tajikistan Deborah Amos, Correspondent, National Public Radio; Ferris Professor of Journalism in Residence, Princeton University Michael Barry, Distinguished University Professor, American University in Kabul          Friday, November 12 – 09:00 AM<br />Afghanistan from Asia-Pacific and Wider Regional Perspectives

William Maley, Emeritus Professor, former Foundation Director, Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy, Australian National University, Canberra Ali Ansari, Associate Professor, College of William and Mary; Director, Indian Development Cooperation Research (IDCR), CPR, India Barbara Stapleton, Former Deputy to the EU Special Representative to Afghanistan, 2006-2010 Prince Turki alFaisal, Former Ambassador to the United States of America; former Ambassador to the United Kingdom; former Ambassador to Ireland; former Director General of the Intelligence Agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Saturday, November 13 – 09:00 AM<br />Perspectives from Europe and the Military

Francesc Vendrell, Adjunct Professor, SAIS Johns Hopkins; former EU Special Representative in Afghanistan; former Special Representative of the UN SG to Afghanistan; of the UN SG to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, East Timor Hans Ulrich Seidt, Former Ambassador to Afghanistan and to South Korea; former Inspector General, German Foreign Office, Berlin. Rani Mullen, Associate Professor, College of William and Mary;  Director, Indian Development Cooperation Research (IDCR), CPR, India Karl Eikenberry, Former Ambassador of the United States to Afghanistan; former Director of the US-Asia Security Initiative at Stanford University; former American Defense Attaché to China