The Future of Afghanistan - Maintaining Peace (If it Comes)

Peace talks with the Taliban have dominated recent headlines. If a peace agreement is ever reached, it is worth looking to the future to see how that peace can be maintained and strengthened.

What would come next from economic development and governance perspectives? How do we move beyond foreign aid and security cooperation driven paradigms to one that focuses on private sector growth and new investments in promising sectors? Robust policies accepted at the national and local levels, good governance, women’s empowerment, tangible demonstrations of continued security, and other changes would be critical to building upon any eventual peace agreement. And that peace agreement, if it ever comes, will only be worth the paper on which it was written should Afghanistan be unable to move into a new, more sustainable chapter in its history.

This event was made possible through general support to CSIS.