This event will bring together a distinguished panel of current USIP grantees to discuss motivations and grievances of the insurgents in Afghanistan and in Pakistan, feasibility and challenges of negotiations with Afghan insurgents, and the perceptions of Pakistani youth about the future of their country.

USIP is currently funding a project with the New America Foundation to generate a “Grievance Matrix” that maps the stakeholders and their interests and grievances in the insurgency affected areas of Afghanistan and along the border in Pakistan. The Brookings Institution is working on a USIP grant-funded project to assess how Pakistan’s younger generation sees the country’s possible future(s) beyond the medium term and its implications for policymakers.  Matt Waldman, in conjunction with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), has produced a USIP Special Report, “Dangerous Liaisons? An Assessment of the Feasibility and Risks of Negotiations with the Afghan Taliban” (forthcoming). The report assesses the feasibility, risks and implications of negotiations in addition to addressing insurgent motivations.

Copies of Mr. Matt Waldman’s report, along with several other pertinent USIP publications, will be available at the event.

Speakers:

• Peter Bergen
  Co-Director of the Counterterrorism Strategy Initiative

  New America Foundation

• Matt Waldman
  Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights
  Kennedy School of Government

  Harvard University

• Rebecca Winthrop
  Director of the Center for Universal Education

  The Brookings Institution

• Mooed Yusuf, Moderator
  South Asia Advisor

  United States Institute of Peace

• Barmak Pazhwak (Chair)
  Senior Program Officer
  Grant Program

  United States Institute of Peace