The current withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan raises a lot of questions about the conflict. Why are they withdrawing now? Was there a better time for this? How might the assistance of Western countries have been more successful? In this episode, Rory Stewart OBE, former Secretary of State for International Development in the UK and now a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, shares his thoughts on the war in Afghanistan. Rory completed a solo walk across Afghanistan in 2002, and his experiences of the people and the country have informed his political, academic and non-profit work, including his 2006 New York Times Bestseller,  ‘The Places in Between’. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.