(New York, N.Y. / Berlin, Germany) —The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) are inviting you to a webinar focusing on the reemerging security risks emanating from Afghanistan.
More than two years after the forceful takeover of power in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime, much of the public discussion is justifiably concentrating on the dire humanitarian circumstances in the country and the Taliban’s ever-increasing return to their harsh rule of the 1990s, including brutal and public punishments and the near total exclusion of women from education as well as professional and public life. Less attention has been paid to the security and terrorist threats that are likely to emerge from the new situation in Afghanistan. Therefore, a clear gap in perception among policymakers and the general public seems to exist in this regard.
In 2022, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) embarked on a series of events and compiled a report highlighting and analyzing a range of these reemerging security risks connected with the Taliban movement.
The report can be accessed here: https://www.counterextremism.com/content/talibans-takeover-afghanistan
With this webinar, CEP and KAS begin the public roll-out of the report, looking at two aspects outlined in the report. The Islamic Republic of Iran plays an increasingly problematic regional role. Not only has the regime embarked on widescale human rights violations internally, but also has significantly increased its malign regional influence over the past decade. Given the highly problematic role of the Taliban regime in connection with terrorist entities operating on Afghan soil, any cooperation between the two regimes would greatly exacerbate the reemerging terrorist risks in the region. The European Union counterterrorism architecture put in place and refined over the past two decades will be crucial to counter such risks. Given the current focus on the war in Ukraine, maintaining and strengthening these mechanisms will be of central importance.
During this webinar, two authors of the report, Hessam Habibi Doroh, researcher and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, FH Campus Wien in Vienna, and Dr. Gerhard Conrad, member of the CEP Advisory Board, board member of the Forum Intelligence Services in Germany, and intelligence advisor to the Munich Security Conference will discuss these issues with Ellinor Zeino, head of the Regional Programme Southwest Asia of KAS.
The webinar will be conducted in English via Zoom.
Date: February 28, 2023
Time: 9:00 a.m. ET / 15:00 CET to 10:30 am ET / 16:30 CET
EVENT PROGRAM:
Presentations:
Iran Facing Two Taliban: Iran-Taliban Changing Relations
Hessam Habibi Doroh
Researcher and lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences, FH Campus Wien in Vienna
Germany and Europe’s Upcoming Fight Against Terrorism
Dr. Gerhard Conrad
Member of the CEP Advisory Board, board member of the Forum Intelligence Services in Germany, and intelligence advisor to the Munich Security Conference
Discussant:
Dr. Ellinor Zeino
Head of the Regional Programme Southwest Asia, Konrad Adenauer Foundation
Moderator and Introductory remarks:
Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler
Senior Director, Counter Extremism Project
The presentations will be followed by a Q&A-session open to all participants.
REGISTRATION:
To participate in this webinar please register via this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VhG4d0xUQjGm1En427CZOw
Please register up to 1 hour before the webinar start so that your registration can be approved in time.
Please feel free to forward this invitation to colleagues with an interest in the subject.