Carter Malkasian in conversation with Janice Stein

This was an in-person event at the Campbell Conference Facility, Munk School, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, Ontario.

On November 10 Lionel Gelber Prize award-winning author Carter Malkasian sat down with Janice Stein, Prize Chair and University Professor to discuss his book The American War in Afghanistan: A History.

After two decades and four presidential administrations, America finally ended its war in Afghanistan. There is little doubt about the outcome: the United States spent twenty years pouring blood, sweat and treasure into a frustrating and complex war — one that it ultimately lost. In The American War in Afghanistan: A History, noted historian and former adviser to American military commanders in Afghanistan Carter Malkasian offers an extraordinary view into the dynamics of that led to America’s withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power. Deeply researched and beautifully written, Malkasian’s account draws on primary sources and takes the reader through the complicated political, military and socio-cultural forces that shaped America’s longest war.

About our Speaker:

Dr. Carter Malkasian is the Defense Analysis Department Chair at the Naval Post Graduate School, U.S. Navy. He was the senior civilian advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford from 2015 to 2019. He has extensive experience working in conflict zones, especially Afghanistan and Iraq, and has published several books. The highlight of his work in conflict zones was nearly two years in Garmser district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, as a State Department political officer. He was also in al-Anbar in 2004–2005 and 2006; Kunar in 2007; Honduras in 2012; and was General Dunford’s senior advisor in Afghanistan in 2013–2014. His latest book, The American War in Afghanistan: A History (Oxford University Press), won the 2022 Lionel Gelber Prize and was rated one of the top 100 books of 2021 by the New York Times. His 2013 book, War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press), won the 2014 silver medal for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Book Award. Other books include Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Islamic State, A History of Modern Wars of Attrition (2002), and The Korean War, 1950-1953. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his doctorate in history at Oxford University. He speaks Pashto.