In a speech in Kabul on March 21, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will mark the official inauguration of the transition process endorsed by NATO allies in November 2010, a process set to culminate in 2014 with the full transfer of security responsibilities to Afghan lead. The conditions under which that transition will take place remain ill-defined, however, even as the United States carries on parallel strategic partnership talks with the Karzai administration for a commitment beyond 2014. What political and diplomatic preparations are being made for an Afghan political settlement that can be sustained absent large-scale international military and financial investment in the country, and what shifts need to take place in advance of transition?
Please join the Center for American Progress for the first event in a monthly series of discussions through this summer which will focus on issues related to the evolving transition and realignment of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Future scheduled events in this series:
• April 19, 2011 – Debating Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan
• May 4, 2011
• May 24, 2011
• June 23, 2011