The Great Power Competition Volume 4: Lessons Learned in Afghanistan: America’s Longest War

Lessons Learned from Afghanistan: America’s Longest War examines the lessons of how America’s "longest war" came to an ignominious end with staggering consequences for the United States and the Afghan nation. Afghanistan today faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, looming threat of a civil war and a resurgence of violent extremism organizations similar to pre-9/11.  As the U.S. enters a new era in the strategic geopolitical Great Power Competition, an analysis of the original mission intent, shifting policy and strategic objectives, and ineffective implementation of security, political and economic programs reveal critical lessons and questions such as:  What led to the "strategic failure" of the U.S. in Afghanistan?  What decisions resulted in the present-day humanitarian, civil, and political crises in Afghanistan? Were these consequences in fact avoidable? Was there an alternative approach that could have maintained the hard-fought gains of the last two decades, and better demonstrated America’s standing as a defender of global human rights?

Lessons Learned from Afghanistan: America’s Longest War further explores lessons of the past negotiations between the United States, Taliban, and former U.S. backed Afghan government to suggest alternative pathways that honor the original intent of the mission and meet present-day obligations to an Afghan nation in crisis.

Dr. Adib Farhadi is Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of Executive Education at the University of South Florida. His research is at the intersection of religion, politics, and conflict with a particular focus on the “Silk Road” Central and South Asia (CASA) Region, which is the subject of his recent book, Countering Violent Extremism by Winning Hearts and Minds. In addition, he is Director and Editor of the Great Power Competition book and conference series. Formerly, Dr. Farhadi served in senior positions in Afghanistan and extensively advised the US government and various other international organizations.

Dr. Farhadi is Internationally Recognized and Frequent Presenter on the topics of Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), Conflict Resolution, Strategic Negotiations & Communication, and Geoeconomics. Dr. Farhadi earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Canberra, M.A. from New York University, and B.S. from East Carolina University.

Dr. Anthony Masysis Affiliate Associate Professor and former Director of Global Disaster Management, Humanitarian Assistance and Homeland Security. As former Senior Air Force Officer, Dr. Masys has a B.Sc. in Physics and M.Sc. in Underwater Acoustics and Oceanography from the Royal Military College of Canada. Dr. Masys holds a Ph.D. from the University of Leicester. He is Editor in Chief for the Springer Publishing book series: Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications and holds various advisory board positions with academic journals and books series.

Dr. Masys is Internationally Recognized Author, Speaker, and Facilitator and has held workshops on security, visual thinking, design thinking, and systems thinking in Europe, Canada, South America, West Africa, and Asia. He has published extensively in the domains of physics and the social sciences. His recent books include:

• Opening the Black Box of Human Error
• Networks and Network Analysis for Defense and Security. Springer Publishing
• Disaster Management- Enabling Resilience. Springer Publishing
• Applications of Systems Thinking and Soft Operations Research for managing complexity. Springer Publishing
• Exploring the Security Landscape - non-traditional security challenges. Springer Publishing.
• Disaster Forensics: understanding root cause and complexity causality. Springer Publishing
• Asia/Pacific Security challenges: managing black swans and persistent threats. Springer Publishing
• Security by Design

Dr. Masys is Visiting Professor at the International Centre for Policing and Security University of South Wales.