In Search of Peace for Afghanistan: Historical Perspectives

On 26 May 2021, the United States Institute of Peace hosted a landmark conference examining the prospects for lasting peace in Afghanistan through the lens of its complex history. Convened at a critical moment — as international forces completed their withdrawal after two decades of engagement — the conference brought together historians, diplomats, and policy scholars to ask what Afghanistan’s past can teach about its future.

The conference centred on the scholarship of Professor Mohammad Hasan Kakar, whose decades of research on Afghan state formation, the Soviet occupation, and the resilience of Afghan civil society were drawn upon extensively. Three panel discussions explored the conditions under which peace initiatives have historically succeeded or failed in the region, the role of external powers, and the internal social and tribal dynamics that any durable settlement must accommodate.

The proceedings drew on previously unpublished archival material from Professor Kakar’s personal research collection, including correspondence between Afghan tribal leaders and British administrators from the late nineteenth century, and firsthand testimonies gathered during his field research in the 1970s.