The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) will host Against the Clock: Saving America's Afghan Partners, an online discussion on Thursday, August 19, 2:30-3:30pm (Eastern Time).
With the departure of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s rapid military gains, the United States must act urgently to protect thousands of Afghans who aided the war effort as local translators, fixers, drivers, guides, security guards, and in other critical roles. Join the Center for a New American Security for this timely discussion on the status of U.S. efforts to relocate Afghan visa applicants, lessons learned from similar evacuations in the past, and what must be done next.
While the first group of Afghans recently touched down in the U.S., the vast majority of the nearly twenty thousand special immigrant visa (SIV) applicants and their families await relocation—part of a lengthy process that, as it stands, will long surpass next month’s troop withdrawal deadline. This is not the first time the U.S. has been faced with this challenge: in 1975 the Ford administration evacuated more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees to the U.S. via Guam; and the U.S. similarly airlifted thousands of Iraqis and Kosovar Albanians to safety in 1996 and 1999, respectively. Today, as the Taliban seizes key ground across Afghanistan, there is little time to spare.
With Featured Speakers:
Representative Seth Moulton
Co-Chair, Honoring Our Promises Working Group
Member, House Armed Services Committee
Ambassador Richard Armitage
President, Armitage International
Former Deputy Secretary of State (2001-2005)
Richard Fontaine
Chief Executive Officer
Center for a New American Security
Lisa Curtis
Senior Fellow and Director, Indo-Pacific Security Program
Center for a New American Security
Former Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for South and Central Asia