Afghanistan conference marks war studies anniversary

The University of Glasgow will mark the 15th anniversary of the Scottish Centre for War Studies with a two-day conference on the war in Afghanistan.
The event, which takes place on 15 and 16 March, will review the conflict’s past and assess how it may develop in the wake of a 40,000-strong troop surge by US President Barak Obama and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The event, entitled: ‘Afghanistan’s Next Crossroads: Ten Years of International Intervention, 2001-2011’ will feature speakers such as Major General Andrew Mackay (retired), who commanded UK forces in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2007; Michael Thomas, head of the Foreign Office’s Afghan Study Unit, and Professor Sultan Barakat, founder of the Post-War Reconstruction and Development Unit at the University of York.
Dr Alex Marshall, Scottish Centre for War Studies at the University of Glasgow said: ‘This war is the most crucial issue left over from the attacks of 11 September 2001. In the past nine years, the vision of the international American-led intervention in Afghanistan has moved from that of a successful new paradigm in warfare to a potential quagmire on the scale of Vietnam.
‘The decision to escalate the conflict will have a profound effect on the development of the Middle East and South Asia, to say nothing of the consequences for the Afghan people themselves.’