The Crisis in Afghanistan Six Months On

Afghanistan Six Months On: “Why are the Taliban back on top in Afghanistan?  And how should the world respond?”  Author and journalist Terry Glavin and former Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan Chris Alexander will team up to offer their expert analysis of the situation in Afghanistan six months after the American withdrawal in August 2021. Their discussion will cover the origins of the Afghanistan conflict, the events leading to the Taliban’s restoration, and the consequences for Afghanistan and for the rest of the world.  Glavin and Alexander will also provide an update on the ongoing humanitarian crisis as more than twenty million people face severe hunger through this cold Afghan winter.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Terry Glavin is a senior fellow with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, a columnist for the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen and a contributing editor to Maclean’s magazine.  He has covered the Afghan conflict extensively and is the author of Come From the Shadows: The Long and Lonely Struggle for Peace in Afghanistan.  Newspaper assignments in recent years have taken him to Afghanistan, Israel, the Russian Far East, the Eastern Himalayas, Northern Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, China, Hong Kong and Central America.  Author of seven books and the co-author of three others, he has won more than a dozen literary and journalism awards, including the Hubert Evans Prize and several National Magazine Awards.

Born in Toronto, Chris Alexander was educated at Oriole Park School and UTS. He attended university at McGill, Laval and Balliol College, Oxford, earning a BA in history/political science and an MA in philosophy/economics. He joined the Canadian foreign service in 1991 and was Canada’s first resident ambassador to Afghanistan (2003-05).  He served as Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General (DSRSG) for Afghanistan (2005-09).  In 2011 he published The Long Way Back: Afghanistan’s Quest for Peace and was elected Member of Parliament for Ajax-Pickering where he served as Parliamentary Secretary for National Defence and then as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.  He lives in Ajax with his wife Hedvig Christine and three children.