September 6, 2021

Pop-up lecture on the future of Afghanistan

Afghanistan War expert Professor Theo Farrell hosts live webinar

University of Wollongong Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Professor Theo Farrell will host a live pop-up lecture on the collapse of the international effort in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban, on Tuesday 7 September.

Professor Farrell offers a unique perspective on the war in Afghanistan, having been involved in direct talks with senior Taliban.

After the Taliban took Kabul on 15 August, a mass evacuation effort took place to get Western citizens, and those Afghans most at risk from the Taliban, out of the country.

While the Afghanistan war is finally coming to an end after 20 years, many questions remain.
Why did the war begin? How did its dramatic conclusion come about? What will happen next?

The Taliban has said it will respect women’s rights and allow them to work and allow girls to go to school. It has also said it will never again allow al Qaeda or any other jihadi groups to attack the West from Afghan soil. But will it make good on these promises?

The path ahead remains unclear for Afghanistan, but what is clear is that the international community cannot turn away from Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan remains a very poor and underdeveloped country. It's very dependent on Western aid,” Professor Farrell said.

“The World Food Program has warned that millions of Afghans face the prospect of starvation because of the effects of the conflict over many years, the COVID crisis right now in Afghanistan, and also a drought which is impacting on crops.”

Professor Farrell is a leading academic expert on the war in Afghanistan and served as an advisor to International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Command in Kabul.

He is the author of Unwinnable: Britain’s War in Afghanistan 2001-2014 (Penguin Random House 2017), which draws on his first-hand experience on the ground in Afghanistan, along with extensive access to classified documents, hundreds of interviews with senior coalition and Taliban leaders, Afghan elders, and coalition political leaders, backed by a comprehensive historical analysis dating back to Britain’s first Afghan war in 1864.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR

The Future of Afghanistan is a free online webinar, starting at 5.30pm on Tuesday 7 September. To register, go to https://uow-au.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Td9NspH5T9qOu9IhbKW0_A