BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:The Moynihan Institute's Practice of Global Politics series pre sents \;Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant Wania Yad from the Univ ersity of Delaware.State-building interventions to construct or restore st ate institutions and practices in places destroyed during decades of inter nal conflict is a common occurrence in today’s international system. Such interventions are often externally driven and internationally supported to build a democratic government in a post-conflict society. A prominent exa mple occurred in Afghanistan\, where\, in the aftermath of the September 1 1\, 2001\, terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda\, the United States began a milit ary campaign that soon turned into a state-building project. This project\ , which lasted twenty years and cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives\, failed: the U.S.-backed government collapsed and was replaced by t he theocratic Taliban regime. Conventional wisdom says that the U.S.-backe d republic fell because Afghanistan was ungovernable and would always be a lost cause for the outside world—a graveyard of empires. While such views are widespread and at times understandable\, policy choices made by the U nited States and its partners in Afghanistan created a legitimacy crisis\, the sources of which were multiple and interwoven. To examine this crisis further\, this talk will address questions such as: \;What policy cho ices did the United States\, its partners\, and Afghan government make ove r the past twenty years that led to this failure?Upon receiving the U.S. E mbassy scholarship for women\, Wania Yad completed an undergraduate degree at the American University of Afghanistan\, majoring in political science and public administration with a minor in law studies. After graduating i n 2016\, she worked for the following two years as a data analyst with the National Security Council of Afghanistan. She began a master’s degree in international relations at New York University as a Fulbright scholar in 2 018. She is currently a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at University of Delaware\, in the Political Science and International Rel ations Department. Her research focuses on social networks and state-build ing in Afghanistan. She also specializes in U.S. foreign policy in South A sia and the Middle East. She has taught classes on \;global migration& nbsp\;and \;human rights and global politics. \; DTEND:20250226T220000Z DTSTAMP:20260306T054329Z DTSTART:20250226T203000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:State-building in Afghanistan: What Went Wrong? UID:RFCALITEM639083546092671680 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Moynihan Institute's Practice of Global Politics series presents \;Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant Wan ia Yad from the University of Delaware.

State-building interventions to construct or restore state institutions and practices in places destro yed during decades of internal conflict is a common occurrence in today’s international system. Such interventions are often externally driven and i nternationally supported to build a democratic government in a post-confli ct society.

A prominent example occurred in Afghanistan\, where\, i n the aftermath of the September 11\, 2001\, terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda \, the United States began a military campaign that soon turned into a sta te-building project. This project\, which lasted twenty years and cost bil lions of dollars and thousands of lives\, failed: the U.S.-backed governme nt collapsed and was replaced by the theocratic Taliban regime.

Con ventional wisdom says that the U.S.-backed republic fell because Afghanist an was ungovernable and would always be a lost cause for the outside world —a graveyard of empires. While such views are widespread and at times unde rstandable\, policy choices made by the United States and its partners in Afghanistan created a legitimacy crisis\, the sources of which were multip le and interwoven.

To examine this crisis further\, this talk will address questions such as: \;What policy choices did the United States \, its partners\, and Afghan government make over the past twenty years th at led to this failure?

Upon receiving the U.S. Embassy scholarship for women\, Wania Yad completed an undergraduate degree a t the American University of Afghanistan\, majoring in political science a nd public administration with a minor in law studies. After graduating in 2016\, she worked for the following two years as a data analyst with the N ational Security Council of Afghanistan. She began a master’s degree in in ternational relations at New York University as a Fulbright scholar in 201 8.

She is currently a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate and teaching assis tant at University of Delaware\, in the Political Science and Internationa l Relations Department. Her research focuses on social networks and state- building in Afghanistan. She also specializes in U.S. foreign policy in So uth Asia and the Middle East. She has taught classes on \;global migra tion \;and \;human rights and global politics. \;

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