On October 24, former National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster and former Afghan Ambassador to China Janan Mosazai visited Stanford Law School to share their perspectives on the future of U.S.-Afghanistan relations.

Gen. McMaster and Amb. Mosazai presented to a full house of Stanford law students, faculty, and community members. Professor Erik Jensen and Executive Director of Stanford’s Rule of Law Program Mehdi Hakimi moderated the discussion and supplemented their perspectives on the U.S. policy in Afghanistan.

At the beginning of the session, the speakers discussed two different visions of Afghanistan: one of an Afghanistan that is supported by its people to be a country of peace, cooperation and understanding and the other darker vision of the country, one that is pursued by extremists and views Afghanistan as a springboard for terrorism. Gen. McMaster and Amb. Mosazai spent the rest of the discussion refuting the second vision of Afghanistan and presented ideas for a way forward that embraced the first vision of the country.

Gen. McMaster and the SLS Rule of Law team also talked about how rule of law separates a prosperous society from those that fail and that it is the most important way to stabilize a post-conflict country.

Gen. H.R. McMaster was the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. He served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. Gen. McMaster will be serving as the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Stanford Hoover Institution. Read about his work at the institute here.

About ALEP: Founded in 2007, the Afghanistan Legal Education Project (ALEP) at Stanford Law School develops innovative legal curricula to help Afghanistan’s universities train the next generation of lawyers and leaders. ALEP is one of the projects under Stanford Law School’s Rule of Law Program. For more on ALEP, see: https://law.stanford.edu/alep

About Rule of Law Program: Established in 1999, the Stanford Law School’s Rule of Law Program is the University’s vehicle for promoting the study and practice of international rule of law and development. The program serves as the scholastic and administrative umbrella for Rule of Law Projects in various countries. For more on the program, see: https://law.stanford.edu/rule-of-law-program/