Colonel Bob Cassidy, Military Professor of Strategy and Policy, U.S. Naval War College
After 15 and half years, where are we in our aims to dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda and to help stabilize and secure Afghanistan sufficently to prevent the return of the Taliban? The talk covers the proximate origins and evolution of Islamist militancy from the mujahideen, to al Qaeda, to the Taliban, and then to the current manifestation of Islamic State-Khorasan in eastern Afghanistan. He will discuss the opportunities and risks associated with current initiative and future prospects for breaking the strategic stalemate. Colonel Cassidy has served four times in Afghanistan, returning from his most recent tour in March 2017. His talk will provide candid insights about whether our investment of blood, treasure, and time in Afghanistan will likely see a good end or a poor end.
Colonel Bob Cassidy, U.S. Army, is a military professor at the U.S. Naval War College. During his most recent tour in Afghanistan (2016-2017), he directed assessments pertaining to the effectiveness of the Afghan Special Security Forces. This talk derives from both his scholarship and experience in the region. He has master’s degrees in international relations, security studies, and strategy from Boston University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the French École de Guerre, and the U.S. Naval War College. He has a doctorate from the Fletcher School at Tufts University where he focused on strategy and irregular warfare. Cassidy has served as a special assistant to three senior generals, as a special operations planner, a battalion commander, and a brigade operations officer. He has also served as an assistant professor at West Point and as a military intelligence sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division. Colonel Cassidy has deployed on operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Haiti, and Grenada. He is the author of three books and a number of articles. The books are Peacekeeping in the Abyss (2004), Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terror (2006), and War, Will, and Warlords: Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2011, (2012). His military qualifications include ranger, jumpmaster, helicopter aviator, survival, evasion, resistance, escape, and Russian and French proficiency.