national security adviser atmar has been a critical leader in afghanistan. he's been the minister of education, and rehabilitation and development, and his efforts through the years have led to remarkable gains, most particularly in the education of girls, but also in rural infra structure, in governance and much more. he was a driving force in the creation of the first afghan national development strategy. and he has been an important partner in peace efforts. so today he will discuss the security challenges that afghanistan faces and a potential path for peace. he will make some opening remarks, and then he will be joined on stage by steve hadley, our board chair here at usip, and of course the national, former national security adviser for president george w. bush. so we will have the great opportunity of listening in to a conversation between former and current national security advisers followed by questions from the audience. so please join me now in welcoming afghan national security adviser atmar. [ applause ] >> thank you. miss nancy lindbergh, exce

so i'm extremely pleased usip is able to host this morning national security adviser atmar. we are very honored, sir, that you chose to accept our invitation to come here and have a conversation with washington policymakers on critical events that are occurring in afghanistan. usip has been deeply involved in afghanistan since 2002, it's one of our longest and largest programs and we have had an office there since 2008. our afghan team there works with government, religious leaders, civil society organizations to address the underlying causes of instability and to create the conditions for peace. so this is a really important moment for our conversation on the afghan peace process. last month the afghan government hosted the kabul peace conference and made a very forward leaning over to the taliban to find a political solution to the conflict. also last month the taliban indicated their willingness to talk to the united states about peace. and next week president afghani will open a conference together with the president of uzbekistan on regional support for a peace process.