Podcast appearances and mentions of John F Sopko

This week on Le Show, Harry Shearer reads from John F. Sopko's memo, “What We Need to Learn: Lessons from Twenty Years of Afghanistan Reconstruction.”

On February 17, the Foreign Policy program at Brookings hosted Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko for a keynote address on the release of the new SIGAR report, “Support for Gender Equality: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan.” A discussion facilitated by Brookings President John R. Allen and a panel conversation with distinguished analysts and practitioners followed Mr. Sopko’s remarks. https://www.brookings.edu/events/women-in-afghanistan-and-the-role-of-us-support/ Subscribe to Brookings Events on iTunes, send feedback email to events@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. To learn more about upcoming events, visit our website. Brookings Events is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Please join the CSIS International Security Program for a conversation with John F. Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). Inspector General Sopko will discuss findings from the SIGAR's latest report on U.S. security sector assistance efforts in Afghanistan, his first public remarks on the report since its publication in June 2019. This event is made possible by general support to CSIS.

Corruption hardly topped the threat list when U.S. military forces and civilians first entered Afghanistan in 2001. But recognition of its devastating potential to undermine U.S. national security objectives is far higher today. Despite a myriad of U.S. efforts, however, corruption remains deeply entrenched in Afghanistan. It undermines the government’s legitimacy, enables an emboldened insurgency, and puts at risk the gains from U.S. taxpayers’ nearly $115 billion investment in reconstruction. The Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has publicly reported on corruption in Afghanistan since 2008. Now SIGAR is releasing its first lessons learned report, on U.S. efforts to address the Afghan corruption problem: Corruption in Conflict: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan. John F. Sopko explored the U.S. experience fighting corruption in Afghanistan and its broader implications, and detailed recommendations to Congress and policy makers to improve such efforts in current and future contingency operations.