NATO, Afghanistan and the Wider Region by Stewart Eldon
Given the scale of international investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the importance of Central Asia cannot be over-emphasised. The region clearly faces significant difficulties, some of which stem from the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the many problems associated with the transition from a command economy and communism to a market economy and democracy. Mr. Eldon will discuss the role that Nato is playing in Afghanistan and the impact on the wider region with the presence of US & Europe in this region. He will also discuss the issues that have led to the polarisation of the Islamic and western worlds and with the change of US administration whether there are prospects of better relations between the two ideologies.
The Open Discussion in collaboration with the Gulf Cultural Club, organised a lecture by Dr Ali Allawi to coincide with the launching of his new book “The Crisis of Islamic Civilisation”. It was held on Tuesday 14th April by the man who had served as Defence and Trade Minister in Post-Saddam Iraq. He delivered a personal account of his early life and how it had been influenced by Muslim and Western thinkers and activists in UK and USA. He described his upbringing in Iraq in the fifties and sixties, his experiences as a student in Washington as a student first at MIT and then Harvard, before obtaining his PhD in Cambridge.
Iraq...Five Years On: A Way Out?.... Michael Binyon
The joint American-British occupation of Iraq is five years old this month and with no sign of ending. Five years on – Iraq is a broken country with no security, severe power supply shortages and medical facilities and basic utilities worse than pre-war saddam era. Violence and insecurity for the Iraqis is the norm with an estimated million (other Iraqi sources estimates are even higher) Iraqis killed to date. Mr. Binyon discussed the reasons behind the failed occupation and the options available for a way out of this quagmire for the occupation.
