Speaker:

Dr. NASIR A. ANDISHA, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the United Nations, Geneva.

Moderation:

PASCAL LOTTAZ, Waseda Institute for Advanced Studies (WIAS)

Content:

In the light of the most recent developments in Afghanistan and the fall of the Ghani Government, the topic of this book talk is even more relevant today. "What is happening in Afghanistan is [in] one way an extension of the old geopolitical rivalries," Ambassador Andisha says. His talk will be addressing the current situation from an academic and diplomatic viewpoint.

Book Description:

This book (published by Routledge) offers a timely and concise academic and historical background to the concept and practice of neutrality, a relatively new phenomenon in foreign and security policy.

It approaches two key questions: under what circumstances can permanent neutrality be applied, and what are the main ingredients of success and the causes of failure in applying permanent neutrality? By evaluating, comparing, and contrasting the two successful European case studies of Austria and Switzerland and the two challenging Asian case studies of Afghanistan and Laos, the author creates a new framework of analysis to explore the feasibility of reframing, adopting, and applying a policy of neutrality and jump start debates on the feasibility of the idea of “new neutrality”. He opens the debate by asking whether, as neutrality successfully functioned as a conflict resolution tool during the Cold War, a reframed and adopted version of neutrality could also serve the needs of the twenty-first-century world order.

This is an insightful book for all scholars, students, and policymakers working in international relations, security studies, the history of neutrality, and Afghanistan studies.