Taliban’s Victory in Afghanistan: Impacts of US Withdrawal on European and Global Security, Debate with Gilles Kepel

October 14, 2021

Prague Center for Middle East Relations (PCMR) and Prague Center for Transatlantic Relations (PCTR) of CEVRO Institute organized a debate with Gilles Kepel entitled “Taliban’s Victory in Afghanistan: Impacts of US Withdrawal on European and Global Security.” Tomáš Pojar, Member of the PCTR Board and Vice-President of CEVRO Institute and Tomáš Kaválek, Director of PCMR of CEVRO Institute moderated the debate. The event was part of the Forum 2000’s Festival of Democracy.

The session focused on the implications of the chaotic withdrawal of Coalition forces from Afghanistan and the Taliban decisively taking control of the country. “It was not something unexpected, but it was unexpected it would go so badly,” said G. Kepel in his opening remarks. He also stressed that the Taliban of today is not the same as yesterday. The discussion also focused on questions like: What does this mean for Islamist movements in the Islamic world and the West? What do US disengagement from Afghanistan and arguably the Middle East and decline of its interest in Europe imply amid Washington’s re-focus on the South Pacific? What implications will that have for European security in particular?

Gilles Kepel is a French political scientist and Arabist specializing in the contemporary Middle East and Muslims in the West. He is a professor at Paris Sciences and Lettres University (PSL) and the Director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Program at Ecole Normale Supérieure. His books have been translated into a dozen languages. The latest one, Sortir du Chaos: Les crises en Méditerranée et au Moyen-Orient (Gallimard), was published in October 2018 and is critically acclaimed after selling 30,000 copies in 3 months.

You can watch a recording of the event HERE.