Afghanistan with Roh Yakobi

Andrew North is an award-winning British journalist and former BBC correspondent in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, and the United States. He lived and reported from Afghanistan throughout two decades of international involvement and visited the country three times after the Taliban’s return, with his last visit resulting in his kidnapping by the group’s intelligence agents. His rece

Rahmatullah Nabil is an Afghan politician and former intelligence chief. Having lost his father at the age of one, he was raised by his mother, who dedicated her life to him. Nabil left school and joined one of the Mujahideen factions as a teenager. An ambush on Soviet forces, during which he was injured, and the discovery of a handwritten letter belonging to a Soviet soldier, chan

Rahmatullah Nabil is an Afghan politician and former intelligence chief. Having lost his father at the age of one, he was raised by his mother, who dedicated her life to him. Nabil left school and joined one of the Mujahideen factions as a teenager. An ambush on Soviet forces, during which he was injured, and the discovery of a handwritten letter belonging to a Soviet soldier, chan

Sir William Patey is a retired British diplomat with extensive experience in Middle Eastern and South Asian geopolitics. He served as the UK Ambassador to Kabul from 2010 to 2012, following earlier roles as Ambassador to Sudan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. In this interview, he shares his insights and analysis on Afghanistan—discussing what went wrong, what the future may hold, and re

Mark Urban is a British journalist, broadcaster, and best-selling author of many books, including War in Afghanistan and The Skripal Files. He has covered Afghanistan extensively since the late 1980s, witnessing firsthand the withdrawal of Soviet forces, accompanying Ahmad Shah Massoud as he took Kabul in 1992, and other key events. In this interview, he shares his stories of the c

Sir Laurie Bristow, the UK's last ambassador in Kabul, witnessed the disintegration of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban in August 2021. He is the author of Kabul: Final Call, which provides an insider's view of the events as they unfolded. In this interview, we discuss the book, Sir Laurie’s reflections on his experience

Professor Thomas Barfield is one of the preeminent experts on Afghanistan, having spent over five decades studying and writing on the country. He is the author of 'Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History' and 'Shadow Empires,' among many others. In this interview, he talks about traveling around Afghanistan for the first time in 1971 and the impact it had on him, his fie

Professor Thomas Barfield is one of the preeminent experts on Afghanistan, having spent over five decades studying and writing on the country. He is the author of 'Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History' and 'Shadow Empires,' among many others. In this interview, he talks about traveling around Afghanistan for the first time in 1971 and the impact it had

Artemis Akbary is an LGBTIQ rights activist and the co-founder and Executive Director of the Afghan LGBT Organization (ALO), and a producer/presenter at Radio Ranginkaman. They have spoken and campaigned at various international gatherings about the plight of the LGBTIQ community in Afghanistan. In this moving interview, Artemis shares their personal story, and their harrowing expe

Thomas Ruttig is a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. He has worked on and in Afghanistan since he graduated in Afghan Studies from Humboldt University, Berlin in 1985: as an East German (GDR) diplomat, including at the GDR Embassy in Kabul (1985-89), as political affairs officer for two United Nations missions in Afghanistan (2000-2003, including as UNSMA head of offi