Laurel Miller

Join veteran Afghanistan reporter Andrew North as he speaks with an incredible lineup including Barnett Rubin, who shaped the interim Afghan government, and peace advocate Lisa Golden from Norway. They unveil the secretive ‘talks about talks’ that began in 2006 amidst intensifying conflict. Laurel Miller shares her experiences in negotiating peace, while Hekmat Karzai discusses the Taliban's leadership struggle following Mullah Omar's death. Together, they explore the challenges, mistrust, and the persistent hope for peace in Afghanistan.

Laurel Miller, Director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program and former deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, delves into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. She explores the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and army, shedding light on the intelligence oversights that contributed to the fallout. The conversation touches on China's, Russia's, and Iran's implications amid these shifts, the challenges facing the Taliban in governance, and the lessons learned from U.S. foreign policy miscalculations in the region.

This past Sunday, Americans woke up to a new reality in the country of Afghanistan—the Afghan government that the United States and its allies have supported for the last two decades is gone. In its place is a resurgent Taliban, now firmly in control of nearly the entire country. Meanwhile, the U.S. presence has been reduced to Kabul’s international airport where soldiers and diplomats are working 24-7 to safely evacuate U.S. and allied personnel, U.S. and foreign civilians, and at least some vulnerable Afghans and their families, even as the rest of the country sits and waits to find out what life will be like under the new Taliban regime.To discuss these unprecedented events, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Afghanistan policy experts Madiha Afzal of the Brookings Institution, Laurel Miller of the International Crisis Group and Jonathan Schroden of CNA. They discussed the state of play in Afghanistan, how we got here and what we should expect next.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.