Menu

United States Institute of Peace

Search

Home ▶ Events

Signs of Hope for Afghan Peace Talks

The Kabul Process, President Ghani’s Offer, and the Ongoing Search for Peace

Date: Friday, March 9, 2018 / Time: 10:00am - 11:00am 

Center: Asia Center

Read the event story
Share This
Print the Page

President Ghani’s announcement at last week’s Kabul Process Conference of a peace offer to the Taliban was a potential watershed in the Afghan peace process, and arguably the most forward-leaning plan for peace with the Taliban the Afghan government has ever put forward. In recent weeks, the Taliban also made unusually specific public offers of peace talks with the United States though the offers continued to exclude the Afghan government. These developments may offer glimmers of hope after years of frustrated efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan.

Ambassador Alice Wells, the Senior Bureau Official in the Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, leads the Afghan peace effort for the U.S. government and has freshly returned from Afghanistan, where she attended the Kabul Process Conference. At the U.S. Institute of Peace Ambassador Wells spoke on the significance of these events, the U.S. government’s potential response, and the outlook for Afghan peace going forward.

Review the conversation on Twitter with #AfghanPeace.

Amb. Alice Wells
Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs,
U.S. Department of State

Andrew Wilder, Moderator
Vice President, U.S. Institute of Peace

Related Publications

Afghanistan’s Crisis Requires a Coherent, Coordinated International Response

Afghanistan’s Crisis Requires a Coherent, Coordinated International Response

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

By: William Byrd, Ph.D.

Over the past year, especially in recent months, the Taliban have made several missteps. The consequences are not a threat to their power in the short run but will damage their ability to govern as well as, potentially, their longer-term cohesion. Unfortunately, these missteps will harm the Afghan people much more, both directly and through their adverse impact on humanitarian aid.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Global Policy

U.N. Conference Highlights Global Unity but Limited Leverage Over the Taliban

U.N. Conference Highlights Global Unity but Limited Leverage Over the Taliban

Thursday, May 4, 2023

By: Belquis Ahmadi;  Kate Bateman;  Andrew Watkins;  Scott Worden

Over a year and a half since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, not a single country has recognized its government. Yet, it has resulted in no change in Taliban behavior. The worst predictions of what Taliban rule could be like have come true, as the regime has implemented unprecedented restrictions on women amid a brutal humanitarian crisis. The situation is so bad that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres convened a special conference in Doha, Qatar this week — with no Taliban representation — to discuss Afghanistan’s international isolation. While there were no tangible outcomes — evidence of how limited the international community’s leverage really is — it did demonstrate remarkable consensus on the imperative to help the Afghan people.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Gender;  Global Policy;  Human Rights

Taking a Terrible Toll: The Taliban’s Education Ban

Taking a Terrible Toll: The Taliban’s Education Ban

Thursday, April 13, 2023

By: Belquis Ahmadi;  Hodei Sultan

Last month, a year after the Taliban banned Afghan girls from receiving secondary education, another school year began in Afghanistan — the only country in the world where girls are prohibited from going to school beyond the primary level. Since the Taliban’s August 2021 takeover, the group has sought to marginalize women and girls and erase them from virtually every aspect of public life. After a March 2022 ban on high school education, the Taliban also barred women from attending university at the end of last year. In a series of interviews with USIP, Afghan mothers, female students, schoolteachers, and university lecturers spoke of the terrible toll the Taliban’s actions have taken on their mental health.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Gender;  Human Rights

What’s Next for the Taliban’s Leadership Amid Rising Dissent?

What’s Next for the Taliban’s Leadership Amid Rising Dissent?

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

By: Andrew Watkins

Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have moved to restrict social freedoms, with a persistent focus on the rights of women and girls. Two edicts issued in December 2022, indefinitely banning Afghan women from attending universities and prohibiting working in NGO offices, constitute the most extreme restrictions yet — orders that were expanded this week to apply to women working for the U.N. as well.

Type: Analysis and Commentary

Democracy & Governance

View All Publications