Debate “Taliban’s Victory in Afghanistan: Impacts of US Withdrawal on European and Global Security”
Date of publication: October 14, 2021
Prague Centre for Middle East Relations (PCMR) and Prague Centre for Transatlantic Relations (PCTR) of CEVRO Institute organized a debate “Taliban’s Victory in Afghanistan: Impacts of US Withdrawal on European and Global Security.” The event was held on Monday, October 11, 2021 from 17:00 at the atrium of the CEVRO Institute (Jungmannova 17, Prague 1). Our distinguished guest was:
- Gilles Kepel, Professor at Paris Sciences and Lettres University (PSL).
The event was part of the Forum 2000’s Festival of Democracy.
The session focused on implications of chaotic withdrawal of Coalition forces from Afghanistan, and Taliban once again decisively taking control of the country. Consequently, a number of pressing issues was discussed such as what does this mean for Islamist movements across the globe, both in Islamic world and in the West? What does US disengagement from Afghanistan and arguably also the Middle East and Europe imply amid Washington’s re-focus on the South Pacific? What implications will that have for European security in particular?
The debate was moderated by Tomáš Pojar, Member of the Board of PCTR and Vice-President of CEVRO Institute and Tomáš Kaválek, Director of PCMR of CEVRO Institute.
Gilles Kepel is a French political scientist and Arabist, who specializes in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. Mr. Kepel is a Professor at Paris Sciences and Lettres University (PSL) as well as chair of the Middle East and Mediterranean Program at Ecole Normale Supérieure, and director of the Middle Eastern Mediterranean Freethinking Platform at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano. He is the author of many widely acclaimed books, including, most recently translated into English, Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West (2017) and the latest one Away from Chaos: the Middle East and the Challenge to the West (Columbia University Press, 2020), which was reviewed by The New York Times as “an excellent primer for anyone wanting to get up to speed on the region.”