Policy brief — February 2025

This study by the Fourth Freedom Forum’s 2024 Howard S. Brembeck Fellow, Amina Ahmed, emphasizes the critical role the Afghan diaspora plays in lobbying their host nations for meaningful support for Afghans in Afghanistan, refugees, and those trapped in limbo without legal status in countries like Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. In essence, this brief serves as a call to action for the diaspora to organize and advocate effectively for their fellow Afghans.

Report — December 2023

This report is a project of the New Paradigm Project, which is made possible with support from the Fourth Freedom Forum, the Colombe Foundation, the Jubitz Foundation, the Chino Cienega Foundation, Cynda Collins Arsenault, Rockefeller Family Associates, and the Samuel Rubin Foundation. The New Paradigm project assesses the costs and consequences of overly militarized U.S. policies that led to failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries, and diverted trillions of dollars from needed investment at home. The project examines the advantages of cooperative multilateral approaches to international security based on principles of human rights and military restraint. The project produces analyses and policy proposals for greater reliance on diplomacy, peacebuilding, development, economic statecraft, and participatory governance as means of preventing armed conflict and violent extremism.

The Fourth Freedom Forum has awarded the inaugural Howard S. Brembeck Fellowship to Anna Romandash from Ukraine, who is a member of the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs’ Master of Global Affairs (MGA) program’s Class of 2022. The newly-established Brembeck Fellowship, which was open to recent graduates, is an academic fellowship focused on promoting fair opportunities for aspiring students to develop practical skills in the field of international peace and security. The fellowship is named to honor the memory of the Fourth Freedom Forum founder, Howard S. Brembeck. He had a vision of multigenerational engagement on these issues and this fellowship will continue his legacy of promoting and supporting young scholars and future leaders whose work will also help to advance the Fourth Freedom Forum’s mission.