You are warmly invited to join us for the Maastricht book launch of When the Almond Trees Bloom — a powerful and reflective work at the intersection of literature, diplomacy, and lived experience.
Programme
- 17:30 — Doors Open and Registration
- 18:00 — Welcome & Opening Remarks- UNU-MERIT / UNSA Maastricht
- 18:10 — Selected reading by Samina Vabo Ansari
- 18:30 — Moderated Conversation
Conversation with the author on contemporary crisis, personal agency, and her work
Moderator: Lena Schwenk (UNSA Development) - 19:00 — Audience Q&A
- 19:20 — Informal Discussion & Book Signing
- 19:30 — Close
About the author:
Samina Vabo Ansari is a Maastricht University alum, a lawyer, and has a background in diplomacy from Sciences Po. She has worked with NATO in Brussels, with UN Women in Afghanistan, and as a consultant for the European Union on peacebuilding in Afghanistan. She is also the daughter of an Afghan general.
About the book:
Her book, When the Almond Trees Bloom, is both a personal narrative and a reflective work about crisis, responsibility, and transformation in our time. It is written from the intersection of lived experience and professional engagement with war, diplomacy, and international intervention. Through this lens, the book explores not only what conflicts do to societies and individuals, but also what they reveal about the deeper assumptions, blind spots, and limits of modern governance, peacebuilding, and international engagement.
Afghanistan stands as one of the most consequential and sobering case studies of our time. The book asks what we can truly learn from this long war, not only in terms of strategy and policy, but in terms of culture, legitimacy, dignity, and the inner dimensions of conflict. It reflects on how external interventions often fail when they do not understand the social, historical, and psychological fabric of a society, and how peace cannot be built solely through institutions, resources, or military presence, but must also be rooted in trust, meaning, and local reality.
The book speaks directly to current and future conflicts, and to the deeper questions facing the international community today.
What does responsibility really mean in a fragmented world? What kind of leadership is required when technical solutions are no longer sufficient? And how do we cultivate forms of engagement that do not merely manage crises, but address their human and cultural roots?
