The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson on Afghanistan: An American Catastrophe (Part One)

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet. I'm producer Mia Sorrenti. Today's episode is part one of our recent live event with John Lee Anderson, staff writer at The New Yorker and one of the great foreign correspondents of our time. Anderson joined us at the Kiln Theatre to reflect on decades of reporting from Afghanistan. From the US-backed Mujahideen's insurrection in Kabul to the American invasion launched in the days after 9-11 and the long war that followed.

Drawing on his years on the ground, he explored how the conflict evolved into what many now regard as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era, and what it can teach us about global relations today. He was in conversation with journalist Clarissa Ward. Let's join them now live on stage in London. Thank you.

Thank you so much for that generous introduction, Margarita. I am beyond thrilled to be here tonight with John Lee Anderson, who I was fortunate enough to meet For the first time in 2006, he barely remembers it. Of course, for me, it was like a seminal event in my life. And I was just starting out as a young journalist and it was the Lebanon-Hezbollah Israel war in 2006.

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