Professor Charli Carpenter Calls for Humanitarian Intervention in Afghanistan

As the Taliban swept the Afghan countryside last week, Human Security Lab Director Charli Carpenter published a piece in Foreign Policy Magazine calling for Security-Council-backed military action to protect cities from siege warfare, and civilians from summary execution, sexual slavery and deprivation.

The United States has stood resolute in its stance that Afghans must fend for themselves, fearing if it steps in to help Kabul, it will be drawn back into an endless quagmire.This is a false choice. The United States can both continue its drawdown from a counterinsurgency and protect civilians from the slaughter by simply shifting its narrative about the purpose of military action and the legal architecture it engages to do so—and by acting quickly.

Carpenter drew attention to the analogy to Bosnia, put forth by UN Special Representative Deborah Lyons, and the success of Operation Deliberate Force in that conflict to bring the war to a swift end and the parties to the peace table. She also reiterated her argument that while it was right to end the counter-insurgency, it was wrong to believe that the only alternative was to allow a power vacuum or Taliban takeover. UN peacebuilding missions, she argued, have a better track record of protecting civilians than either inaction or Western-run nation-building.

In addition to writing essays, Professor Carpenter is engaged in dialogues with organizations aiming to protect civilians and strengthen the UN mandate in that country, and initiatives to protect and assist Afghan scholars at risk.