Ryan Crocker, former Ambassador to Afghanistan and former Dean of the Bush School, and Andrew Natsios, Professor at the Bush School and Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, will speak on the history and consequences of U.S. state building in Afghanistan. The Scowcroft Institute will host the talk, titled “State Building in Afghanistan: Did Anything Work?”
The event will be held via Zoom on Thursday, October 21, at 6 p.m. It is open to the public, but registration is required.
Crocker served in the Foreign Service for thirty-seven years, and after retiring, was recalled to active duty by former President Obama in 2011 to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Ambassador Crocker’s previous ambassadorial appointments include Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. In January 2002, former President Bush assigned him to Afghanistan to reopen the American Embassy in Kabul. Because of his service, he received the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for “exceptional courage and leadership” in Afghanistan.
Crocker also served as the Dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service from 2010 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2016.
Crocker has received many of the nation’s highest honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the State Department Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, the Department of Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the State Department Distinguished Honor Award, the Award for Valor, three Superior Honor Awards, and the American Foreign Service Association’s Rivkin Award.
Natsios served as the USAID Administrator from 2001 to 2006 and oversaw infrastructure development, reconstruction, emergency and crisis response, policy reform, global health, democracy and governance, and humanitarian relief programs across the world, with particular emphasis in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan. He is also an Executive Professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service and the Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs.
