Dawood Azami and Alam Payind will discuss the background of the conflict and prospects for the future.
The US led invasion of Afghanistan more than a decade ago brought hopes of stability and prosperity to the country torn by conflicts since the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979. International community led by the US have spent billions of dollars to help the country stand on its feet. Although, Afghanistan has seen an unprecedented amount of development over the past decade, the conflict in the country continues despite NATO’s continued war effort. According to the UN Security Council's mandate, the US-led international military force in Afghanistan is scheduled to withdraw fully by the end of 2014. Meanwhile, Afghanistan and the US have been bargaining over a bilateral security agreement which will mean that around 10,000 US forces will be based in a number of strategically important "facilities and areas" across Afghanistan.
Dawood Azami is a Senior Broadcast Journalist, BBC World Service, London, Visiting Lecturer, University of Westminster, London.
Alam Payind is the Director of the Middle East Studies Center and former Professor of Kabul University
This event is co-sponsored by the Mershon Center for International Security Studies.
Event flyer: https://osu.box.com/Azami-Jan-2014
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Dawood Azami is a visiting scholar and award winning broadcast journalist. He has been working as a Senior Broadcast Journalist for the BBC World Service in London since 1999. He also served as the BBC World Service Bureau Chief and Editor in Kabul, Afghanistan (2010 and 2011). Dawood also works as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster, London, where he teaches on a module called ‘Globalization, Power and International Governance’. He was also a Visiting Scholar at the Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. His expertise includes biological sciences, geopolitics, international relations, media and international development. Dawood has won many awards and prizes. He was honoured as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011. In 2012, he was selected as a European Young Leader under the first pan- European program of leadership called ’40 under 40’. He became the youngest person to ever win the biggest and life time achievement award in the BBC, ‘Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution' in 2009. Dawood speaks five languages and writes poems and short stories in three of them. He is also a calligrapher and painter/artist.
Alam Payind, Director of the Middle East Studies Center at the Ohio State University since 1986, is also a senior teaching member of the International Studies Program and the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department, a liaison for the Office of International Students and Scholars, and a member of University's International Programs Task Force. Born and raised in Afghanistan, and previously a holder of government and academic positions in Kabul, he speaks Pashto, Dari and Urdu with native fluency. He continues to conduct field work, provide consultations on a regular basis in Afghanistan and has visited the country 13 times since September 11th, 2001. He travels extensively within the Afghan borders, and during recent trips he has been witness to the Taliban's resurgence in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, and other provinces of Afghanistan.
Besides being a professor at the Ohio State University, he is still part of the faculty at Kabul University in Afghanistan, and is a consultant to the Afghan government in its educational reconstruction efforts. In late 2006, Dr. Payind was appointed as Ambassador of Afghanistan to the United Kingdom which he turned down for personal and professional reasons. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science and Higher Education, as well as an M.A. in Political Science in 1977 from Indiana University, his M.Sc. in Higher Education from Indiana University in 1972; and his BA in Political Science & Islamic Law from Kabul University in 1966. Dr. Payind follows developments regarding the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, scheduled for April 2014.
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Parking
Faculty, staff and students with an Ohio State parking pass may park in the appropriate spots in any of the campus parking lots or garages. There is a small lot off Pennsylvania Avenue behind the Mershon Center. The closest parking garage is the 9th Avenue West Garage.
Off-campus visitors may use one of a few meters in the small lot off Pennsylvania Avenue behind the Mershon Center, or more reliable paid parking can be found in the Safe Auto Hospitals Garage near the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center at 185 Westpark Street.
