Sanctuary? The Afghanistan-Pakistan Border and Insurgency in the 1980s, 90s, and Today
An Afghanistan Working Group public event featuring Ahmed Rashid and Steve Coll
The Afghanistan-Pakistan border region has been served as a sanctuary and base of operations for insurgent movements for generations. During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, billions of dollars were channeled through the Pakistani government, military, and intelligence services to fund a wide array of resistance groups. Thousands of foreign militants, including Osama bin Laden, came to support the struggle of the mujahideen, and spawned an international jihadist movement. In the 1990s, the Taliban emerged from this region to impose fundamentalist Islamic rule on Afghanistan, and today, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other groups fight for control of this region on both sides of the border, aiming to bring down the governments in Kabul and Islamabad.
Join us as Ahmed Rashid, renowned Pakistani journalist and author of the international bestseller Taliban, and Steve Coll, president and CEO of the New America Foundation and celebrated author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Ghost Wars, discuss the evolution of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and other militant forces in the tribal areas spanning the long border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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1:27:40 - 16.1MB
Speakers
- Ahmed Rashid
Ahmed Rashid is a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review. He also writes for the Daily Telegraph, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Review of Books, and the BBC Online, among others. He is the author of Taliban: Islam, Oil and the new Great Game in Central Asia, and Jihad, The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia. - Steve Coll
Steve Coll, is the president and CEO of the New America Foundation and the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. He is a former correspondent and managing editor at the Washington Post, and a current staff writer at the New Yorker. - J Alexander Thier, Moderator
Senior Rule of Law Advisor, U.S. Institute of Peace
