The Forgotten Front: A New Strategy for Afghanistan

November 6, 2007, 12:30pm – 2:00pm

About This Event

Six years after the United States led an invasion of Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power and destroy Al Qaeda's safe haven, Afghanistan faces a growing insurgency that directly threatens its stability and the national security interests of the United States and its allies. The United States, in coordination with the Afghan government and the international community must change its current approach toward Afghanistan.

The Center for American Progress will release a new counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan, outlining a set of recommendations for strengthening the Afghan government, increasing security, accelerating reconstruction, combating the narcotics trade, and removing the terrorist safe haven in Pakistan. The panelists will discuss the new Center report, as well as offer their valuable insights on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Featured Panelists:
James F. Dobbins, Director, International Security and Defense Policy Center, RAND Corporation
Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Vice President for National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress
J. Alexander Thier, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, Rule of Law Program, United States Institute for Peace

Moderated by:
Caroline P. Wadhams, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Resources

• Complete Audio Recording
• Complete Transcript

Biographies

James F. Dobbins directs RAND's International Security and Defense Policy Center. He has held State Department and White House posts including Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special Assistant to the President for the Western Hemisphere, Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for the Balkans, and Ambassador to the European Community. He has handled a variety of crisis management assignments as the Clinton administration's special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and the Bush administration's first special envoy for Afghanistan. He is lead author of the two volume RAND History of Nation Building and The Beginner's Guide to Nation Building.

In the wake of Sept 11, 2001, Dobbins was designated as the Bush administration's representative to the Afghan opposition. Dobbins helped organize and then represented the United States at the Bonn Conference where a new Afghan government was formed. On Dec. 16, 2001, he raised the flag over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy.

Dobbins graduated from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and served 3 years in the U.S. Navy. He is married to Toril Kleivdal and has two sons.

Lawrence J. Korb is the Senior Vice President for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Advisor to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Mr. Korb Served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985. In that position, he administered about 70 percent of the Defense budget. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense's medal for Distinguished Public Service. Dr. Korb served on active duty for four years as a Naval Flight Officer, and retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of Captain.

J. Alexander Thier is senior advisor in the Rule of Law program at USIP, one of the Centers of Innovation. He is director of the project on Constitution Making, Peacebuilding, and National Reconciliation, and co-founder of the International Network to Promote the Rule of Law. He is also responsible for several rule of law programs in Afghanistan, including a project on establishing relations between Afghanistan's formal and informal justice systems. Prior to joining USIP in 2005, Thier was the director of the Project on Failed States at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. From 2002 to 2004, Thier was legal advisor to Afghanistan's Constitutional and Judicial Reform Commissions in Kabul, where he assisted in the development of a new constitution and judicial system. Thier has also worked as a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group, as an advisor to the Constitutional Commission of Southern Sudan, and as a U.N. and NGO official in Afghanistan during the civil war from 1993 to 1996. Thier has appeared as an expert commentator on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. He has a B.A. from Brown University, a master's in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Caroline P. Wadhams is a Senior Policy Analyst for National Security at the Center for American Progress. Prior to joining the Center, she served as a Legislative Assistant for Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) on foreign-policy issues. Wadhams also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., as the Assistant Director for the Meetings Program and in New York as a Research Associate on national security issues. Prior to the Council on Foreign Relations, she worked at ABC News in New York. Her overseas experience includes work with the International Rescue Committee in Sierra Leone and two years in Ecuador and Chile. She received a master's degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.