From 24-26 September 2021, Dean Dr. Roger Kangas along with Professor Dr. Hassan Abbas and Professor John Gill participated in the restart of the annual NESA-IISS Southern Asia Security Conference in Bahrain. This was the 14th iteration of the conference after a hiatus in 2020 because of the health crisis. As in the past, this off-the-record track 1.5 event brought together a substantial number of senior serving/former military and civilian officials, sitting legislators and subject matter experts from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, as well as academics and officials from the UK and the U.S. No officials from Afghanistan participated this year, but we were able to draw on the insights of two influential non-Taliban political figures virtually; we also heard from a former Afghan parliamentarian and Doha negotiator who was present in person. Topics included the situation in Afghanistan, Afghan-Pakistan relations, India-Pakistan tensions, the India-China rivalry, the impact of the pandemic, and countering extremism/terrorism in the wake of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

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