Throughout the 2008 campaign, President Obama promised a renewed effort to address the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. In the last year, insurgents have established control over large swaths of the country; the drug trade has escalated; and fighters, weapons, and other resources have continued to flow across the border from Pakistan. With critical Afghan elections scheduled later this year and the administration now poised to deploy tens of thousands of new forces into the country, the United States must take decisive steps to reorient its strategy in Afghanistan if it is to prevent the country from slipping further into chaos.

At this event, AEI scholars Thomas Donnelly, Frederick W. Kagan, and Gary J. Schmitt will be joined by Lieutenant General David Barno (U.S. Army, retired) to provide an overview of strategic challenges facing the United States and its partners in Afghanistan and assess the necessary components of a successful campaign plan for the coming year. Danielle Pletka, AEI's vice president for foreign and defense policy studies, will moderate.