SSR in challenging environments - Counter-terrorism and SSR in Pakistan

19th March 2009 (12:00)

Department for International Development, 1 Palace Street, London. SW1E 5HE, UK

In this seminar, the panel will focus on the civilian-military relationship in the country, specifically developing three key themes: the improvement of civilian oversight of the military; the nature of civilian control of intelligence structures; and how Pakistan's role as a frontline state in global counter-terrorism impacts upon reform efforts.

In the current international security climate, analyses of security sector reform must be set in the wider context of global counter-terrorism, which plays out in particular ways at regional and national levels. Pressures to continue with 'old ways' and existing, often flawed, approaches to security sector reform are perhaps sharpest when local conflicts make reform seem highly risky. In thinking about how global uncertainties impact upon national SSR work in practical ways, this seminar will focus on the nature of, and challenges to, meaningful security sector reform in Pakistan. The panel will focus on the civilian-military relationship in the country, specifically developing three key themes: the improvement of civilian oversight of the military; the nature of civilian control of intelligence structures; and how Pakistan's role as a frontline state in global counter-terrorism impacts upon reform efforts.

Chair:

• Stuart Croft, Professor of International Security at Warwick University, GFN Advisor and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council “New Security Challenges” programme.

Speakers:

• Hassan Abbas is a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Dr Abbas works on the Center’s Program on Managing the Atom and International Security Program. His research interests are Pakistan's nuclear programme and the Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan controversy; religious extremism in South and Central Asia, and "Islam and the West".
• Josh White is a Research Fellow with the Center on Faith & International Affairs at the Institute for Global Engagement and a Ph.D. candidate at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington. His research focuses on Islamic politics and political stability in South Asia, and he has travelled extensively in Pakistan's frontier areas.
• Ayesha Siddiqa is an independent security analyst and strategic affairs columnist. She was previously Director of Naval Research with the Pakistan Navy, a Ford Fellow and a “Pakistan Scholar” at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She is the author of Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy and Pakistan's Arms Procurement and Military Buildup, 1979-99 In Search of a Policy.

There will be time for questions and discussion.

Further information to follow.

To register for this event, please email events@ssrnetwork.net.