FP Virtual Dialogue: How Afghanistan Will Impact America’s Role in the World

March 24, 2021

Will a failed peace process force America’s reckoning with endless wars?

The May 2021 deadline to decide whether to fully withdraw American troops out of Afghanistan, as agreed in the Doha peace deal, looms large as President Biden’s first major foreign policy challenge. Bearing profound impacts on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and beyond, the decision also could provide a historic opening to redefine America’s foreign policy in a changing world.

Experts on all sides of the debate agree that the Biden administration is faced with no good options. While few of the security gains that the deal hoped to achieve have materialized and violence continues to escalate, some argue that defining America’s future role in Afghanistan must be nestled within the larger questions of costs and consequences of U.S. military actions abroad. Evaluating these trade-offs in foreign policy, how should America reckon with the failing Afghan peace process? What options and risks must President Biden grapple with if his administration wants to redefine a new grand strategy for the region?

Foreign Policy, in collaboration with the Charles Koch Institute, convened a thought-provoking virtual dialogue featuring U.S. foreign policy and global experts offering a variety of perspectives on what Afghanistan means for America’s future role in the world and how the Biden Administration is likely to address this challenge and what course it might set for the future of U.S. foreign policy and global leadership.

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Event Details

March 24, 2021 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT

Webinar login information will be provided upon registration

Speakers

Lisa Curtis

Senior Fellow and Director, Indo-Pacific Security Program, CNAS

Lisa Curtis is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). She is a foreign policy and national security ...

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Michael Kugelman

Senior Associate for South Asia, Wilson Center, and Writer, Foreign Policy

Michael Kugelman writes Foreign Policy’s weekly South Asia Brief. He is the Asia Program deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center in Washington...

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Laurel Miller

Director, Asia Program, International Crisis Group

As Director of International Crisis Group’s Asia Program, Laurel leads the organization’s research, analysis, and policy advocacy about and in the region. Prior t...

As Director of International Crisis Group’s Asia Program, Laurel leads the organization’s research, analysis, and policy advocacy about and in the region. Prior to joining Crisis Group, Laurel was a senior foreign policy expert at the RAND Corporation, her research and analysis covered conflict resolution, democratization, institution-building, and anti-corruption in countries throughout the world. From 2013 to mid-2017, Laurel was the deputy and then acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Department of State. During previous U.S. government service, she was Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Senior Advisor to the U.S. special envoy for the Balkans, and Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues. She was directly involved in peace negotiations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia. Laurel also served as Director for western hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council. Laurel was a senior expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she focused on constitution-making, rule of law development, and transitional justice. She has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown. Earlier, Laurel practiced law with Covington & Burling in Washington, DC, and Brussels. She was an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Laurel is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School. Laurel has been widely interviewed including by the BBC, CNN, The Economist, The New York Times, NPR, PBS NewsHour, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She has published commentaries in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. Laurel edited and co-authored an extensive study of constitution-making processes, “Framing the State in Times of Transition." Her RAND publications include “Envisioning a Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Afghanistan," “Democratization in the Arab World," “Building a More Resilient Haitian State," and “Overcoming Obstacles to Peace."

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Will Ruger

Vice President for Research and Policy, Charles Koch Institute and Vice President, Foreign Policy, Stand Together

Dr. William Ruger is a foreign policy thought leader, Navy veteran, scholar, and former tenured professor with more than 20 years of experience in the education realm, including...

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Congressman Adam Smith

Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee

Now in his 13th term, Smith serves as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is a strong advocate for our military personnel and their families. Smith is a...

Now in his 13th term, Smith serves as the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, where he is a strong advocate for our military personnel and their families. Smith is also committed to providing our military personnel with the best equipment available to carry out their current and future missions while ensuring that the Pentagon spends taxpayer dollars in the most efficient and effective manner. This includes carefully examining our current policies and working to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. Having served on the on the House Armed Services Committee since 1997, Smith formerly chaired the subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, which has jurisdiction over all Army and nearly all Air Force acquisition programs. Prior to serving as Chair of ALF, Adam chaired the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities subcommittee, which oversees the United States Special Operations Forces and counter-terrorism policy, among other critical areas. Adam has also previously served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Given his current and previous committee assignments and extensive travel, Smith has unique insights into today’s foremost national security issues throughout the Middle East, including the war in Afghanistan, as well as Northern Africa and our larger efforts to stop the spread of violent extremist groups and their ideology around the globe. Understanding the need for a holistic approach to national security, Smith recognizes the importance of poverty reduction, access to education, sustainable global markets, diplomatic engagement, good governance and other measures to enable our pursuit of stable international partners. As such, he has been a long-time advocate of strengthening American diplomacy and development as well as defense. Congressman Smith sees a clear need to reform our foreign assistance and improve these two pillars of national security that have been under-resourced and underutilized for too long. He has supported efforts to reform American foreign assistance, introduced legislation to address global poverty, and created the bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Effective Foreign Assistance with Congressman Ander Crenshaw.

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