Afghanistan Rising Initiative: Sustaining Success in Afghanistan Led by the Zalmay Khalilzad Chair on Afghanistan

Last week the Atlantic Council launched a new initiative — Afghanistan Rising: Sustaining Success in Afghanistan — to help sustain American and international engagement in Afghanistan during a time that the drawdown of forces will tempt partner nations to turn their attention elsewhere.

To lead the initiative, the Atlantic Council is announcing the founding of the Zalmay Khalilzad Chair on Afghanistan, made possible through the generous support of Atlantic Council Board Director Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the United Nations. The Khalilzad Chair will organize the “Afghanistan Rising” initiative to advance strategies, policies, and concrete projects — working closely with our friends and allies in Afghanistan — to help ensure that we do not miss this historic moment.

This initiative and its chair are the inspiration of Ambassador Khalilzad — one of the United States’ most accomplished diplomats — who has spent much of his life trying to ensure a better future for Afghanistan. During his tenure as US ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 to 2005, Ambassador Khalilzad helped navigate the country through many of its first democratic steps, from assisting the processes leading to the drafting of Afghanistan’s constitution, the country’s first elections, and the organization of the new parliament.

Said Ambassador Khalilzad, “With so much uncertainty across the Islamic world, it is crucial that the United States and its allies don’t lose their focus on the transition in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of most US troops. The Atlantic Council initiative and the Khalilzad chair will be designed to further US-Afghanistan engagement and enhance the prospects for Afghanistan’s continued political and economic development, and for providing security to the Afghan people.”

Former Ambassador James Cunningham will serve as an Atlantic Council senior fellow and the inaugural Zalmay Khalilzad Chair. Cunningham was US ambassador to Afghanistan from 2012 to 2014, and deputy ambassador from 2011 to 2012, during which he played a leading role in managing the security transition to Afghan responsibility, in negotiating the Strategic Partnership and Bilateral Security Agreements, and in supporting Afghan elections and the agreement on the Government of National Unity. Prior to Afghanistan, Cunningham was US ambassador to Israel, Consul General in Hong Kong, and US deputy representative to the United Nations. He has extensive experience in Europe as well, including his tenure as chief of staff to NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner.

“The election of President Ghani and the inauguration of Afghanistan’s unity government presents an historic opportunity for Afghanistan, its region, and the West,” said Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, in a statement announcing the initiative and Khalilzad chair. “With the right sort of continued American and international support, Afghanistan can dramatically break with decades of war and create a future of prosperity.”

For more information on the Afghanistan Rising Initiative visit: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/news/press-releases/atlantic-council-announces-new-afghanistan-initiative