The Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Presents:
Book Event: Afghanistan and International Relations
Event Details:
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
12pm-2pm
1302 IAB
Advance registration required. Lunch Provided.
With speakers:
Ali Yawar Adili, Editor, Afghanistan and International Relations; Non-Resident Fellow, Center on International Cooperation, New York University
Paul Lushenko, Editor, Afghanistan and International Relations; Professorial Lecturer, George Washington University; Adjunct Professor, U.S. Army War College
Moderated by Stephen Biddle, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University
Book Details:
Afghanistan and International Relations (Routledge 2025) explores various dimensions of recent international relations scholarship, taking the case of Afghanistan as a point of departure for discussion of these different themes. Theoretically, the authors interrogate the Afghanistan case’s implications for international relations, and vice-versa, by integrating multiple and complementary global or structural, state or institutional, and behaviouralist or leader-centric lenses. Conceptually, the chapters bridge the gap between theory and practice, thus reflecting the emergence of a problem-oriented approach to international relations scholarship. Methodologically, the research design employed by the authors is best characterised as “analytical eclecticism.” The majority of contributors originate from Afghanistan, something which again makes this book notable, and all three editors have extensive experience from time spent in Afghanistan. Using the Afghan case to explicate the importance of the relevance of theory and its related concepts to international relations studies, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of international relations, Asian and Middle East Studies.
Speaker biographies:
Ali Yawar Adili, Non-Resident Fellow, Center on International Cooperation
Biography: Ali Yawar Adili is a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation. He has worked for several years as a researcher and analyst, focusing on Afghanistan. Ali served with the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), including as its Country Director from December 2020 to September 2021, when he was displaced from Afghanistan. His research focused on elections and electoral systems, ethnic politics, the intra-Afghan peace talks, state institutions, and the security dynamics in central Afghanistan. After his displacement, he was the Project Coordinator of the Afghanistan Observatory Initiative at New America, based in Washington, DC, before earning his Master of International Affairs degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Lushenko, Ph.D.
Biography: Paul Lushenko is a U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and serves as the Chief Strategist and Director of Future Studies and Wargaming for the Joint Counter-Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office. He is an Assistant Professor at the U.S. Army War College and Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University. Paul is a globally recognized expert on emerging technologies and war, widely publishes on the intersection of emerging technologies, politics, and national security, and is the co-author of The Legitimacy of Drone Warfare: Evaluating Public Perceptions (2024). He earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where he served as a U.S. Army General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster Scholar; holds numerous master’s degrees; and, has a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy.
