To Lose a War: Afghanistan Five Years On

Five years after the chaotic withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan, the Taliban remain firmly in power. After two decades of war against the Taliban, the Afghan government and security forces built and supported by the West collapsed within days, and many of the promises made after 2001, particularly to Afghan women and girls, have been reversed.

How did a twenty-year military and political intervention end this way? Bringing together decades of reporting from Afghanistan with experience at the highest levels of British military leadership, the discussion will examine the expectations of 2001, the decisions and misjudgements that shaped the war, the withdrawal and its consequences, and what Britain and its allies should have learned.

Five years on, what does Afghanistan tell us about the limits of military power and Britain’s military capacity today? And with women and girls systematically excluded from education, employment and public life under Taliban rule,…