On Monday 13 September 2010 Ambassador Robert D Blackwill, Henry A Kissinger Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; IISS Trustee will speak on “Plan B: The De Facto Partition of Afghanistan” from 1-2pm.

Ambassador Blackwill will argue that the Obama administration’s counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan seems prone to failure, and that, in view of alternative options, a de facto partition of Afghanistan is the best course open to the United States and its allies. This would accept that the Taliban will inevitably control most of its historic stronghold in the Pashtun south. But Washington could ensure that north and west Afghanistan do not succumb to jihadi extremism, using US air power and special forces in combination with the Afghan army and like-minded nations. De facto partition, he argues, is clearly not the best outcome one can imagine: but it is now the best outcome that Washington can achieve, consistent with its vital national interests and the tolerances of US domestic politics.

Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill is the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a Trustee of the IISS.  Previously, he  was senior fellow at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica from 2008 to 2010, after serving from 2004 to 2008  as President of BGR International, a Washington consulting firm.  As deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor for strategic planning under President George W. Bush, Blackwill was responsible for government-wide policy planning to help develop and coordinate the mid- and long-term direction of American foreign policy. He also served as presidential envoy to Iraq, and was the administration’s coordinator for U.S. policies regarding Afghanistan and Iran. Blackwill went to the National Security Council (NSC) after serving as the U.S. ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003.

Prior to reentering government in 2001, Blackwill was the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. During his 14 years as a Harvard faculty member, he was associate dean of the Kennedy School, where he taught foreign and defence policy and public policy analysis.  From 1989 to 1990, Blackwill was special assistant to President George H.W. Bush for European and Soviet affairs, during which time he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the Federal Republic of Germany for his contribution to German unification.

This meeting will be moderated by Adam Ward, Director of Studies, IISS. It will take place in the Lee Kuan Yew Conference Room at Arundel House, 13-15 Arundel Street, Temple Place, London WC2R 3DX.

Members who would like to attend, please RSVP reception@iiss.org.