The Lawfare Podcast: Afghanistan Six Months After the Taliban Takeover

Jen Patja, Scott R. Anderson, Laurel Miller, Andrew Watkins, Obaidullah Baheer
Tuesday, February 1, 2022, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
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Nearly six months have passed since the Taliban’s sudden takeover of Afghanistan. As the country faces down a failing economy and looming humanitarian catastrophe, the new Taliban regime is still struggling with what it means to govern, both internally within the country and externally in its relations with the broader international community.

To get a sense of the state of play in Afghanistan, Scott R. Anderson sat down with a panel of experts: Laurel Miller, director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program; Andrew Watkins, a senior expert on Afghanistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace; and Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan and a visiting scholar at The New School. They talked about the Taliban's approach to governing, its changing relationships with the outside world and what it all means for Afghanistan's future.


Jen Patja is the editor of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security, and serves as Lawfare’s Director of Audience Engagement. Previously, she was Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics and Deputy Director of the Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier, where she worked to deepen public understanding of constitutional democracy and inspire meaningful civic participation.
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.
Laurel Miller is the director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia Program.
Andrew Watkins is a senior expert on Afghanistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Obaidullah Baheer is a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan and a visiting scholar at the New School in New York. He is an activist from within Afghanistan who is campaigning for girls' education and running his own aid initiative under the title "Save Afghans from Hunger".
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