Can the Afghan National Army prevent civil war?

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As the United States begins to prepare to leave Afghanistan, the message being portrayed by the media is that the Afghan National Army (ANA) is taking control and running operations.

But when foreign troops have gone home can Afghanistan depend on the ANA to keep the country from civil war?

In 2014 America’s longest war will be over but what will become of the Afghan people? Join us as we ask whether the country is destined to see a repeat of the civil war that followed the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

Chaired by Nick Fielding, former Sunday Times journalist and editor of Circling the Lion’s Den, a blog on Afghanistan. He is the author of Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and the War on Terror and Capture or Kill: The Pursuit of the 9/11 Masterminds and the Killing of Osama bin Laden.

With:

Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher at Amnesty International.

Brigadier James Chiswell CBE MC, MOD Head of Overseas Operations.

Dawood Azami, visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist working for the BBC World Service in London. Until recently, he was the BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan. Before joining the BBC in London in 1999 he worked as the head of an educational & training institute in Pakistan, mainly for Afghan refugees.  He was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2011. He won Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution, (the lifetime achievement award given by the BBC Global News Division in 2009).

Jonathan Steele, a Guardian columnist, roving foreign correspondent and author of Ghosts of Afghanistan. Since 9/11 he has reported from Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Leo Tomlin, Cabinet Office Deputy Director Asia and Russia, and former Deputy Head of Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Picture credit: isafmedia