Invite you to a session on Withdrawal and its Implications: The future of Afghanistan
EVENT DETAILS
DATE		Wednesday, May 7, 2014
TIME		5:00 PM  - 6:00 PM (Tea & Registration: 4:30 pm)
LOCATION		Burdwan and Cooch Behar Room, The Oberoi Grand, Kolkata
SPEAKERS		Professor Anatol Lieven, International Relations Chair at the War Studies Department, King’s College London Dr Rudra Chaudhuri, Senior Lecturer at the War Studies Department and the India Institute, King’s College London
MODERATOR		Mr. Scott Furssedonn-Wood, British Deputy High Commissioner for Eastern India
ABOUT THE EVENT Uncertainties permeate the security, political and economic transitions in Afghanistan as the withdrawal of American and International Security Assistance Forces (SAF) approaches in the course of 2014. Will the decline in international military presence throw greater responsibility on regional actors to take the lead in initiatives for peace and stabilization in Afghanistan ? What about India’s stake in ensuring stability in Afghanistan and avoiding spillover of tensions and terrorist activity? The challenges of sustaining an evolving democratic state structure, social-cultural transformation and Afghanistan as a regional transit hub for economic progress are immense and need to be addressed.
SPEAKERS Professor Anatol Lieven -  International Relations Chair at the War Studies Department, King’s College London Prof Lieven is the Chair of International Relations in the War Studies Department of King’s College London, and a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC.  His recent book, Pakistan: A Hard Country, was published in April 2011 by Penguin and was selected by the Daily Telegraph as one of the '2011 Books of Year'. A new edition of America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism, was published in 2012. He spent most of his career as a British journalist in South Asia and the former Soviet Union, and author of several books on the latter region, including Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power? (Yale University Press 1998) and Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry (USIP, 1999); and The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence (Yale University Press 1993). He has a BA in history and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. From 2000-2005 he was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. In 2005 he became a senior research fellow of the New America Foundation, a position he continues to hold. He writes a monthly column for the Financial Times, and is published frequently in other newspapers and journals.     Dr Rudra Chaudhuri- Senior Lecturer at the War Studies Department and the India Institute, King’s College London Dr Chaudhuri joined the department in September 2009 having previously taught at the UK Joint Services and Command and Staff College. In September 2012, his position as a Lecturer was divided between War Studies and the India Institute at King’s. Currently, he is the Program Director for the MA South Asia and Global Security course. He completed his BA at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, MA at Exeter and PhD in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.   Together with colleagues in the department, he has served as a consultant to British Commanders in Afghanistan. He has also worked closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as a Program Director for confidential stakeholder conferences and workshops focussing on the economic and political future of Afghanistan, India-Pakistan relations, and the thorny issue of reconciliation with the Taliban.    MODERATOR Mr. Scott Furssedonn-Wood, British Deputy High Commissioner for Eastern India Scott Furssedonn-Wood is a career diplomat and assumed charge as the British Deputy High Commissioner for Eastern India in October 2013. Before being posted to Kolkata , Scott was based in the US. From 2008 until 2013 he served at the British Embassy in Washington DC, first as Head of Strategic Threats, working on counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation issues; and then as Head of the Political Section, where he was responsible for coverage of the 2012 Presidential election, a role which took him to 47 of the 50 states.  Prior to Washington, he spent two years at the Foreign Office in London as Private Secretary to the Minister of State for the Middle East & South Asia, during which time he travelled to over fifty countries, including to India and its neighbours on many occasions. Mr Furssedonn-Wood is a MA (Hons) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Merton College, Oxford University and has a MBA from Open University.
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