Afghanistan After America: A Conversation With Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith

The Foreign Affairs Interview · Aug 27, 2026 · 1h 13m

Five years ago this month, the United States ended its war in Afghanistan. Washington’s exit was chaotic; as Taliban forces swept through the country and the U.S.-backed government collapsed, officials scrambled to evacuate tens of thousands of Afghans who might fall victim to repression and retribution. In the years since, Afghanistan has practically vanished from American foreign policy discussion. But the situation in the country remains dire, and the collective forgetting of the United States’ longest war carries costs of its own.

Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith have each spent many years…