Rethinking “The Great Game”: Cultural Perspectives in Afghanistan Policymaking

Uncertainty about international engagement in Afghanistan has grown during the first half of 2010, perhaps more so than any other point in the nine-year conflict. The means to political stability in Afghanistan are undergoing a re-examination in the wake of General Stanley McChrystal's dismissal, the U.S. troop surge with a conditional drawdown in July 2011, and the shifting discourse regarding political negotiations with insurgency leaders.

In a Joint Forces Quarterly article last year, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote, "Only through shared appreciation of the people's culture, needs and hopes for the future can we hope ourselves to supplant the extremist narrative." Yet, this historical context and cultural perspective of foreign engagement in Afghanistan are currently missing from the debate.

Playing at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. this fall, the London-based Tricycle Theatre's production of the "The Great Game: Afghanistan" explores the complex British, Russian and U.S. engagement in the country since 1840, allowing audiences to examine parallels with the current conflict, the lessons of causality for contemporary policymaking and how the accessibility of culture can drive international engagement and intervention. Please join us for a discussion about the relationship between cultural relations and conflict transformation in Afghanistan.

Speakers

Air Vice Marshal Michael Harwood
Defence Attache, British Embassy
Nicolas Kent
Artistic Director, Tricycle Theatre
Mariam Atash Nawabi
Anchor, America Abroad Media
Ambassador William Taylor, Opening Remarks and Moderator
Vice President, USIP Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations