Najam Joins “Dawn News” Analysis of Afghanistan Post-U.S. Withdrawal
Adil Najam, Dean Emeritus and Professor of International Relations and Earth and Environment at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, was part of a special DawnNews analysis show marking the one-year anniversary of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan and events of the past year.
The program included an analysis of the one-year Taliban government in Kabul and the recent killing of Taliban leader Ayman Al Zawahiri by a U.S. drone.
Joining a panel of journalists who have been covering Afghanistan since the U.S. withdrawal, Najam analyzed the one year since the withdrawal and described it as a year of “global disinterest, U.S. disengagement, and Taliban incompetence.” He said that the past year proved that neither the Taliban nor the rest of the world – including the U.S. – have much interest in the plight of the ordinary Afghan.
He reminded us that the anniversary marks not just one year from a U.S. withdrawal, but also 20 years of U.S. control and before that 43 years since the then USSR first invaded Afghanistan; the Afghan people have known nothing except violence and war for 43 years. That, he said, is “one of the great tragedies of our times and every major power in the world and in and around Afghanistan has their share of blame and responsibility to bear.”
The full program (in Urdu) can be viewed below.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who served as the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice-Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about Najam on his faculty profile.