Will the Afghanistan Debacle Happen to NATO Countries Again?

1:00 -2:00 PM (Doors Open 12:30). Sandwich lunch provided.

This event is fully booked. We are now operating a waiting list.

The aim of this academic lunch is to briefly review NATO+ good approaches and bad approaches from 2002. In so doing the talk will look at issues of foreign policy, aid, diplomacy, regional cooperation, economic factors including resources and trade, colonial factors, and military strategy & tactics. Paul will assess the fundamental political approaches underpinning the NATO-linked effort, including the liberal-versus- statist features of political and economic development.

A key question is ‘could it happen again ?’ Have the difficult and inevitably uncomfortable lessons been learned, or are NATO-linked countries destined to repeat the mistakes over and over again ? This is a vital question for political and administrative leaders, some of whom must have asked in the last three years, ‘who really won, and why?’.

Paul Reynolds works internationally as an independent adviser on ‘senior governance’, political economy, and governmental reform, with an emphasis on countries in conflict. He has worked for government ministers and political opposition leaders in more than 70 countries. His work has been funded by UK Forces, IBRD, IMF, client governments, and opposition parties.

Notable international roles include Chief Political Adviser to Coalition Forces (SAO) in Iraq from 2003, adviser to HMA and Special Forces in Afghanistan from 2008, adviser with the Central Party School and State Council in Beijing from 2002, and adviser to international investors in the Horn of Africa from 2011. Paul has travelled extensively around Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Paul’s conflict-affected country work includes Sierra Leone, Rwanda, The Horn of Africa, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Belarus, Philippines, and Algeria. Paul has worked closely with UK Parliament APPGs on several issues including China and Rohingyas. Paul’s recent publications include ‘The Rise of China’.