The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on:
Pakistan’s Security Concerns Anno 2012 –
What are the Local and Regional Challenges?
Monday, 7 May 2012, 9.30-12.00
Danish Institute for International Studies
Main Auditorium
Strandgade 71, ground floor, 1401 Copenhagen K
Background
Deepening the understanding of Pakistan’s security challenges on a local and regional scale is instructive to understand reasons behind recent cleavages in US-Pakistani relations. In the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), political autonomy and militant cross-border activities raise one set of concern that is intimately linked to the uncertainty about who will govern the neighboring country when the western alliance draws the troops out. In Punjab, Pakistan is witnessing an increase in sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni groups. In Baluchistan, separatist demands about higher levels of autonomy and independency play into the old security trauma of loosing Bangladesh. In Kashmir, an entirely different set of concerns are present, relating to the ongoing cold war with India, and the ultimate risk that it would transform into yet another war.
This seminar will focus on Pakistan’s security concerns anno 2012 given the county’s internal and regional challenges and the interplay between them. The speakers will discuss what the main security threats from a Pakistani perspective are, and how they relate to Pakistan’s foreign policy towards neighboring India, Afghanistan and Iran.
Speakers
Ashraf Ali has 20 years of experience in the field of journalism, and left BBC World Service last year to join the FATA Research Centre (FRC) as its President. During his time with the BBC, Ali covered the rise and fall of the Taliban in the conflict zones on both sides of the Durand Line (Pak-Afghan border), the subsequent American-led war on terror and the re-grouping of the Taliban in recent times. Ali has contributed articles to Daily Telegraph (London), The Muslim Observer (USA) and the Gulf Monitor (UAE), besides writing regular columns for the leading Pakistani newspapers.
Ayesha Siddiqa has primarily worked on issues related to military technology, defense decision-making, nuclear deterrence, arms procurement, and civil-military relations in South Asia. As the first ever civilian and woman, she serves as the Director of Naval Research with the Pakistan Navy. Siddiqa is a Ford Fellow and was Pakistan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington from 2004-05. Siddiqa is the author of Pakistan’s Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99: In Search of a Policy (Palgrave, 2001) and Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy (Pluto, 2007).
Programme
09.30-09.45 Introduction
Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Postdoc, DIIS
09.45-10.30 Pak-Afghan Taliban Nexus − a Threat to Regional Security
in the Post NATO Withdrawal Scenario
Ashraf Ali, President of FATA Research Centre
10.30-11.15 Pakistan Post 2014
Ayesha Siddiqa, Author and analyst
11.15-12.00 Q & A
Chair: Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Postdoc, DIIS
Practical Information
The seminar will be held in English.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use below online registration form no later than Thursday, 3 May 2012 at 12.00 noon. |
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