The Lawfare Podcast: After the Fall in Afghanistan

Jen Patja, Scott R. Anderson, Madiha Afzal, Laurel Miller, Jonathan Schroden
Tuesday, August 17, 2021, 12:00 PM
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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.


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Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Scott R. Anderson

Scott R. Anderson

S_R_Anders
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Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
Madiha Afzal

Madiha Afzal

MadihaAfzal
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Madiha Afzal is a fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. Her work focuses on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and U.S. policy toward both countries. She was previously David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program and an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Afzal is the author of “Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State” (Brookings Institution Press, 2018).
Laurel Miller

Laurel Miller

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Laurel Miller is the director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program.
Jonathan Schroden

Jonathan Schroden

@jjschroden
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Jonathan Schroden directs the Countering Threats and Challenges Program at the CNA Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and analysis organization based in Arlington, Virginia. His work at CNA has focused on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency activities across much of the Middle East and South Asia, including numerous deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. The views expressed here are his and do not necessarily represent those of CNA, the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.

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