Agree-to-Disagree: Leaving Afghanistan: New Debate from Intelligence Squared U.S. Out This Saturday, August 21

While news develops by the minute in Afghanistan, the lauded debate organization Intelligence Squared U.S. is presenting a timely brand new debate this Saturday, August 21. The debate, part of IQ2’s Agree-to-Disagree series, features an introduction by  one of the world’s leading experts on the social and political situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Ahmed Rashid, and two authorities on the region with different viewpoints on the United State’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Dan Markey (Johns Hopkins)  and Kori Schake (American Enterprise Institute). The debate will be available as a podcast at 12pm ET at this link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intelligence-squared-u-s-debates/id216713308

 

Agree-to-Disagree: Leaving Afghanistan

The Taliban have won. Twenty years after the 2001 invasion, the U.S.-backed government in Kabul has fallen. The Afghan president has fled. Taliban leadership, which ran the country in the late 1990s, is now firmly in place within the presidential palace. Thousands are desperate to leave, literally clinging to departing aircraft as they rumble down runways, fearful of what reprisals may come. But after two decades of war, tens of billions spent, hundreds of thousands of lives lost – including more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel – bigger questions have emerged: Is the cost of leaving greater than the cost of staying? And was pulling out the right decision? Those who say “yes” argue that the world is a decidedly different place than it was in 2001, that the mission was never to nation-build, and that continued presence prolonged the violence and distracted energies and resources away from more pressing global challenges, particularly on those centered on China. But those who argue “no” point to the potential for a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe, the ceding of U.S. influence in Central Asia, and the likelihood for another terrorist safe haven. As such, Intelligence Squared and its host John Donvan examine these competing perspectives in this special timely edition of Agree-to-Disagree: Leaving Afghanistan. 

Arguing in favor of leaving is Daniel Markey, Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Arguing against leaving is Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies atthe American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan is the moderator. 

*Ahmed Rashid, Journalist and Renowned Author of Taliban 

Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and best-selling author, is one of the world’s leading experts on the social and political situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His first book, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, explores the shadowy world of the Taliban and quickly became a #1 New York Times bestseller.  Rashid has been called “Pakistan’s best and bravest reporter” (Christopher Hitchens).

An engaging and thought-provoking speaker in the United States and abroad,Rashid has addressed numerous institutions around the world and has won many awards, including the Nisar Osmani Courage in Journalism Award, given by the Human Rights Society of Pakistan. Rashid became the first journalist to address the UN General Assembly in New York in September 2002.

Rashid has been the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the past twenty years for London’s Daily Telegraph and writes for the Pakistaninewspaper The Nation, among others. 

Rashid was born in Rawalpindi, Pakistan in 1948, and was educated at Malvern College in England, Government College University, Lahore and at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. 

 

FOR LEAVING AFGHANISTAN - Dan Markey

*Dan Markey, Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

Daniel Markey is a senior research professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He also serves as the academic director of the Johns Hopkins SAIS Global Policy Program. Dr. Markey is author of China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia.  

From 2007-2015, Daniel Markey was a senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. While there, he wrote No Exit from Pakistan: America’s Tortured Relationship with Islamabad. From 2003 to 2007, Dr. Markey held the South Asia portfolio on the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State. 

Prior to government service, he taught in the Department of Politics at Princeton University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. Dr. Markey is the author of numerous reports, articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces. His commentary has been featured widely in US and international media.

 

AGAINST LEAVING AFGHANISTAN - Kori Schake

*Kori Schake, Senior Fellow and Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at American Enterprise Institute

Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

Dr. Schake is the former deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has worked at the US State Department, the US Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House.  Author of five books, most recently “America vs the West: Can the Liberal World Order Be Preserved?,”Dr. Schake is widely published in policy journals and the popular press. She has a PhD in government and politics from the University of Maryland. 

 

ABOUT INTELLIGENCE SQUARED U.S. DEBATES (IQ2US)

Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2US) was founded to address a fundamental problem in America: the extreme polarization of our nation and our politics. Through its award-winning live debates and associated programming, the nonprofit company serves as a model for responsible media in a new age - fair, intelligent, nonpartisan - while restoring critical thinking, facts, reason, and civility to public discourse. Recently recognized as "Best Podcast Event of 2020" by Adweek, Intelligence Squared U.S. reaches millions through multi-platform distribution, including public radio (the show airs in all top 25 markets that carry specials), podcasts, video live streaming, newsletters, interactive digital content, and on-demand apps including Roku and Apple TV. With over 190 Oxford-style debates and counting, plus additional podcast and video content, IQ2US has encouraged the public to "think twice" on a wide range of provocative topics for over a decade. Author and ABC News correspondent John Donvan has moderated since 2008.

 

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