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The Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow, to mark the 15th anniversary of its foundation, announces that it is hosting a major international event to discuss the war in Afghanistan. On March 15th and 16th 2010 we will bring together soldiers, scholars, diplomats and journalists from around the world to examine how the conflict in Afghanistan has developed to this point, and how it is likely to develop in the future. Now that President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have opted for a surge of almost 40,000 troops to try and force a decisive result in Afghanistan, the war has reached a tipping point.
This war is the most crucial issue left over from the attacks on September 11th 2001. In the past 9 years the vision of the international American-led intervention in Afghanistan has moved from that of a successful new paradigm in warfare to a potential quagmire on the scale of Vietnam. The decision to escalate or the conflict will have a profound effect on the development of the Middle East and South Asia, to say nothing of the consequences for the Afghan people themselves.
Speakers that have already agreed to participate include Major General Andrew Mackay (Retd), who commanded British forces in Helmand province in 2007, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles the United Kingdom Ambassador in Kabul from 2007-9, Professors Marc Genest and Andrea Dew, Directors of the Center for Irregular Warfare and Armed Groups at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island, Dr Antonio Giustozzi (author of Koran, Kalashnikov and Laptop), Professor Sultan Barakat, founder of the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit at the University of York, Harsh Pant a lecturer at Kings College London, Mr Abbie Aryan a member of Department for International Development and Michael Thomas, head of the Foreign Office’s Afghan Study Unit.
We are particularly delighted to announce that Professor Hew Strachan, the Chichele Professor of War Studies as Oxford University, will present the conference’s closing address. Professor Strachan, apart from being the UK’s leading scholar of modern military history, was the founder and first director of the Scottish Centre for War Studies in 1995. Because of his vision and support the centre has become one of the leading centres in the UK for strategic studies, with a thriving research centre and a healthy graduate master’s programme.
For further information contact Dr Alex Marshall at the Scottish Centre for War Studies. Phone 0141-3308581; Email: a.marshall@history.arts.gla.ac.uk
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