The Alliance for the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes

“Constructive challenge requires us to put aside comfortable illusions and to deal with the world as it is, not the world as we would like it to be. This is the heart of good policy-making.” Opening the fifth Cambridge Afghanistan Series, Sir Laurie Bristow, President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge and former UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, reflected on lessons from the past 25 years and on how ideas for a different future can be translated into practical progress. He argued that the next stage of work around the Comprehensive Composite Roadmap (CCR) needs to move beyond identifying desirable outcomes towards a clear “theory of change”: understanding how change can actually happen, who has influence and resources, what the critical steps and trade-offs are, and what must happen first. Sir Laurie also stressed the importance of realism — about conditions inside Afghanistan, the international political environment and the limits of external intervention — while emphasising that any lasting political future must ultimately be determined by the people of Afghanistan themselves. His opening keynote set the tone for CAS-V: Moving from Vision to Reality – The Roadmaps to Inclusion in Afghanistan, held at Jesus College, Cambridge. @laurie_bristow @Hughes_Hall @Cambridge_Uni @RUSI_org @lseideas @theELN #CambridgeAfghanistanSeries #CASV #Afghanistan #Governance #Peacebuilding #ForeignPolicy