Afghan essay winners participate
in the Young Atlanticist Summit

The guiding principle of this award is to offer support to the Afghan successor generation in pursuing meaningful academic and practical projects. Afghan students are encouraged to use their leadership and research abilities and to contribute to Afghanistan’s reconstruction process.

PDD selected nine winners of the Manfred Wörner Award from the Faculties of Law and Political Science, Social Studies and Economics at Kabul University. Their projects focus on a variety of topics relevant to the ongoing process of reconstruction and development of their country, such as: security, fight against narcotics, civil education, gender equality, ethnic diversity, private investment, and the role of human capital in economic development.

This is the first year that the NATO Public Diplomacy Division awarded the NATO Manfred Wörner Essay Award to students and young researchers from Afghanistan.

During the event, the students were greeted by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for PDD, Dr. Stefanie Babst, who spearheaded and created the Award. The Afghan students were invited to meet with the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper. They also attended the panel on Afghanistan at the Bucharest Conference organized by the German Marshall Fund.

The Young Atlanticist Summit was held in conjunction with the NATO Summit, and it brought together students and young professionals representing NATO and Partnership for Peace members, giving them an extraordinary opportunity to meet directly with decision-makers and build consensus on critical issues in the Alliance.