Human Security Lab Convenes Webinar on Peacekeeping in Afghanistan

AMHERST, Mass. – Human Security Lab hosted a webinar examining whether it is time for a United Nations peacekeeping mission to the country. The webinar was convened by Charli Carpenter, professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the Lab, recently called for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan in an article for World Politics Review. In this webinar, Carpenter was joined by five international experts on peacekeeping, civil war and international conflict resolution to explore what the U.N. can do to make, keep and build peace, stability and human rights in the region.

“With the Taliban now firmly in control, can peacekeeping even be considered, much less take root and be effective? The answer is yes,” Carpenter wrote in World Politics Review. “Unlike U.S.-based counterinsurgency, research shows peacekeeping works,” she says.

Participating in the virtual roundtable were:

• Lisa Hultman, Professor of Peace and Conflict research at Uppsala University, Sweden

• John Ciorciari, Associate Professor of public policy and director of the Ford School’s Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center at the University of Michigan

• Sabrina Karim, Assistant Professor of government at Cornell University

• Faten Ghosn, University Distinguished Professor in the School of Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona

• Chiara Ruffa, academy fellow in peace and conflict research at Uppsala University in Sweden and associate professor in war studies at the Swedish Defense University.

The webinar moderated by Professor Charli Carpenter and was built off of a series of working groups organized by Human Security Lab to game out scenarios for constructive multilateral engagement in post-conflict Afghanistan. The project has since included a series of stakeholder-academic consultations and a briefing note arguing for a UN peacekeeping mission in Aghanistan.