Afghanistan – was it worth it?
Michael Binyon OBE, the eminent Times journalist and foreign correspondent, talks with online editor Ruth Gledhill about Afghanistan’s past, present and future in light of current developments.
Wednesday 25 August: 17:45 -18:45 BST
Time: 18:00-19:00 BST
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Michael Binyon has been an editorial writer, columnist and foreign correspondent for The Times since 1971. For 15 years he was based overseas, reporting for the paper from Moscow, Washington, Bonn and Brussels before returning to London to be diplomatic editor in 1991 and then becoming the chief foreign editorial writer in 2000.
After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English and Arabic, he spent a year teaching English for the British Council in Minsk, USSR, in 1967, and in 1968 began as a reporter on The Times Educational Supplement, moving to the BBC Arabic Service in 1970 and becoming a founder reporter of The Times Higher Education Supplement in 1971.
He speaks French, German, Russian and some Arabic and is a frequent broadcaster on BBC radio and television and Sky, and also appears regularly on French, German, Russian and Middle Eastern radio and television as well as Monocle24 radio.
A winner of two British journalism awards, he wrote Life in Russia in 1983 and was awarded an OBE in 2000. He formally retired from The Times staff in November 2009 but has continued to write regularly for the paper and for other publications.
Ruth Gledhill is an English journalist and is a former religion affairs correspondent for The Times, a post she left in 2014. Ruth was the last full-time newspaper journalist dedicated to religious affairs in the UK. She is currently online editor for The Tablet.