Afghanistan: the death of liberal internationalism?

Afghanistan has been in the headlines for many years – but tragically for all the wrong reasons. First invaded by the Soviets in 1979, the country experienced the trauma of civil war followed by intervention after intervention, concluding in August 2021.

Today, Afghanistan and its people face multiple interrelated challenges, including those of women’s rights, the drugs economies and human trafficking and exploitation. Now under Taliban rule, what does this country’s unique history and complex present political landscape mean for Afghan society, and competing actors in the international system? This event examines the multiple dimensions of conflict; what happened, why, and what the future holds for the country now the Taliban are back in power.

The book can be downloaded for free from our website: https://press.lse.ac.uk/site/books/e/10.31389/lsepress.afg/

and can be purchased in physical format via other online bookshops such as Book depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781909890985

Meet the speakers and chair

Caroline Kennedy-Pipe is Professor of International Relations and International Security at the School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences, Loughborough University. She joined Loughborough in 2018 from the University of Hull, where she was Professor of War Studies and Director of the Centre for Security Studies. Her research interests include contemporary war, the ethics of war and Cold War politics as well as terrorism and Russian foreign policy. She is currently President of the British International Studies Association and was Chair of the Association from 2004 to 2006. She has a first class honours degree in History, an MsC Econ in Strategic Studies and a DPhil in International Relations.

Michael Williams is an international relations scholar, former advisor for the Department of State, and former Congressional candidate for the 5th District of Connecticut. Williams is the author of numerous books focusing on foreign affairs. In 2006 he was elected a ‘Young-Leader’ by the Atlantic Bridge (Atlantik-Bruecke) foundation dedicated to developing US-European relations. Since 2008, Williams has been a faculty member in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he presently holds the rank of Reader.

Michael Cox is a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was Director of LSE IDEAS between 2008 and 2019. He was appointed to a Chair at the LSE in 2002, having previously held positions in the UK at The Queen’s University of Belfast and the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at the LSE in 2004 and later co-founded LSE IDEAS in 2008 with Arne Westad.

Mary Kaldor (@KaldorM) is Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict Research Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

More information about the event

This event is hosted by LSE IDEAS

Event hashtags: #LSEAfghanistan

LSE IDEAS (@lseideas) is LSE’s foreign policy think tank. Through sustained engagement with policymakers and opinion-formers, IDEAS provides a forum that informs policy debate and connects academic research with the practice of diplomacy and strategy.

LSE Press is an open and innovative publisher of journals, books and new forms of publishing. Their mission is to support the launch and development of high quality, open access publishing in the social sciences. They publish books and journals and encourage and facilitate innovative and experimental publications.