The last UK Ambassador to Afghanistan, on the ground during the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
Author of “Kabul: Final Call”, a first-hand account of the collapse of Afghanistan in August 2021.
UK Ambassador to Russia, 2016-2020.
Leading expert on Russia, geopolitical risk, crisis leadership.
President of Hughes Hall, Cambridge University.
Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.
Kabul: Final Call
On 15 August 2021, the world watched in horror as Kabul fell to the Taliban, almost exactly 20 years after the Taliban were ousted following the 9/11 attacks against the United States. For 20 years, at a cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars, the United States, the United Kingdom and their Afghan allies fought a war against terrorism and against a Taliban insurgency while trying to build a modern state in Afghanistan.
How did all this come to nothing, in just a few short weeks?
Kabul: Final Call tells the shocking story of the last days of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It offers a no-holds-barred insight into the looming collapse of Afghanistan as western military forces pulled out, the political intrigues among the Afghan elite and the indifference of western politicians. It lays bare the horror of the evacuation from Kabul, and the quiet heroism of the British soldiers and civilians who brought over 15,000 people to safety, against impossible odds.
Five years on from the events of 2021, the people of Afghanistan continue to pay the price of failure – particularly Afghan women and girls. So do the families of the soldiers who gave their lives, and those whose bodies and minds were broken by the war. This book offers an unblinking assessment of the causes, the meaning and the human cost of the disaster in Afghanistan.