Biography

Lucy Morgan Edwards wrote 'The Afghan Solution' in an attempt to show a counter-narrative to the prevailing wisdom on the post 9/11 war in Afghanistan:  in particular to illuminate to a western audience how the war could have been avoided, to show how the decisions made by western policymakers' (whose effects were witnessed first hand by the author) have led to the present situation and to present an alternative, Afghan led, blueprint for peace.   The book takes the reader to Afghans who tell the much of the story themselves, both men and women.  However the central theme of the book is Edward's investigation into a major  Afghan-led plan for toppling the Taliban: a plan which existed - both pre and post 9/11, which had buy-in from Commander Massoud, Abdul Haq, the ex King and a pan-Afghan group of Tribal leaders and senior Taliban themselves, but  which depended on the West 'not' bombing the country.  

Using never-before published information, many interviews with those familiar with the peace plan and what she witnessed and heard herself, she exposes why western intelligence agencies ignored this opportunity and proceeded to pit the West into an un-winnable war.  Her book, which also follows her own narrative and reads like a thriller, exposes complicity and incompetence by the West's military/intelligence/political and even media establishment.  

'The Afghan Solution' provides a unique perspective on the political evolution of the post 2001 war in Afghanistan.  As such it also has valuable lessons for policymakers thinking of intervening in other countries, including - of course - in relation to the Arab Spring. 

Lucy Morgan Edwards  spent seven years in the 'AfPak' region, initially working in Kandahar at the height of the Taliban regime (supervising community and urban water supply projects for the UN) and latterly as Political Advisor to the EU Ambassador in Kabul (with responsibility for civil military affairs, narcotics and security sector reform).   She was also an election monitor at the 2002 Emergency Loya Jirga (a critical element in the political settlement that followed), the initial researcher on Transitional Justice issues for the International Crisis Group, a monitor on the currency exchange project with the Afghan Central Bank and correspondent for the Economist and Daily Telegraph.  

She also spent many months in Jalalabad, Eastern Afghanistan, living with a leading tribal family (that of Abdul Haq and Haji Abdul Qadir), whereby she developed an insight into the post 9/11 political situation in the dis-enfranchised Pashtun areas of the East.  Her final job was Country Expert to the EU Monitors of the 2005 Afghan Parliamentary Elections.  

She has written several academic papers on the post 9/11 Afghan intervention and state-building process and has spoken about what led to the situation - as well as prospects for peace -  on CNN (with Becky Anderson), SKY news, the BBC World Service, the Dylan Ratigan show and at Chatham House, the Royal United Services Institute, the Oxford University Strategic Studies Group,  the Frontline Club, the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Kings College Dept. of War Studies, the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard, the Saltzman Institute for War & Peace at Columbia University and the New America Foundation in Washington DC.    She currently lives in Geneva. Her book is being distributed by Pluto Press worldwide and by Palgrave Macmillan in the USA.