Dawood Azami has been a Senior Producer with the BBC World Service for ten years, and won the Global Reith Award for Outstanding Contribution in 2009. A specialist in politics, security and culture in Afghanistan and Pakistan, he will explore some of the myths about Afghanistan and its people prevailing mainly in the Western World. He will talk about the past and present of Afghanistan and the surrounding region by linking the events today with past policies, and will explain how foreign interference has transformed the country into a centre of drug production and a key attraction for militants. He will also assess whether Afghanistan is heading towards stability or anarchy, and the implications for the rest of the world.
2009 Cafes
- The World after Bush
- The agony of Zimbabwe, what chance for change?
- National self-determination: What constitutes the right to secede?
- Pakistan: stable state or global hazard?
- Peak oil: A case of Cry Wolf?
- Ukraine: What is the significance of the Orange Revolution?
- The history and histriography of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
- Afghanistan: Local Realities and Foreign Myths
- Civilian & military casualties in Western warfare
- Sri Lanka: The prospects for peace
- Capitulation, capitulation, capitulation: the UK government’s relationship with the City of London