Pakistani-American Scholar Dr Moeed Yusuf in Silicon Valley
By Riaz Haq
Pakistani-American scholar Dr Moeed Yusuf, Associate Vice President of the Asia Center at the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC, visited Silicon Valley on September 29, 2018. Dr Yusuf spoke at an event organized by Talk4Pak (talk4pak.com) team to launch his recently published book "Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments US Crisis Management in South Asia".
The event was moderated by Faraz Darvesh. It started with a brief intro by Riaz Haq to Talk4Pak followed by an introduction to the main speaker by Dr Misbah Azam.
Riaz Haq introduced Talk4Pak as a media platform intended to connect Pakistani-Americans with Pakistan to stimulate discussion on issues of interest to the diaspora.Talk4Pak principals include Faraz Darvesh, Misbah Azam, Sabahat Ashraf, Ali Hasan Cemendtaur, and Riaz Haq. Talk4Pak engages with its target audience via social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Talk4Pak produces two regular shows: Viewpoint From Overseas in English and Azad Labon Kay Sath in Urdu.
Talk4Pak shows feature discussions with analysts, activists, journalists, intellectuals, writers and thinkers. Guests include Dr Moeed Yusuf, Dr Adil Najam, Dr Ishrat Husain, Shuja Nawaz, Raoof Hasan, Munir Malik, Jibran Nasir, Ayesha Siddiqa, Husain Haqqani, Tarek Fatah, Dr Nyla Ali Khan (granddaughter of Shaikh Abdullah), Raza Rumi, Zahid Husain, Mazhar Abbas, Farrukh Pitafi, Zarar Khuro and others.
Misbah introduced Dr Moeed W. Yusuf as Associate Vice president of the Asia Center at the US Institute of Peace (USIP). Yusuf has been engaged in expanding USIP’s work on Pakistan/South Asia since 2010. His current research focuses on youth and democratic institutions in Pakistan, policy options to mitigate militancy in Pakistan and the South Asian region in general, and US role in South Asian crisis management. His latest book, Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: US Crisis Management in South Asia, was released by Stanford University Press in May 2018. The book offers an innovative theory of brokered bargaining to better understand and solve regional nuclear crises.
At the talk4pak Silicon Valley event, Dr Yusuf addressed three areas of focus:
1. US-Pakistan relations: Yusuf says Washington now sees India, not Pakistan, as its strategic partner in South Asia. Washington's entire relationship with Islamabad today revolves almost exclusively around Afghanistan where American and Pakistani interests do not converge. The only time the United States gets involved in India-Pakistan conflict is when there is a serious crisis that the world fears could escalate into a nuclear confrontation between them.
2. India-Pakistan Ties: There is no sustained dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad to resolve issues such as Kashmir. Yusuf speculates that India wants to wait it out for the time when its economic and military differential with Pakistan becomes so large that Delhi can dictate terms to Islamabad as the unchallenged regional hegemon.
3. Afghanistan War: Pakistan does not believe that the Afghan Taliban can be militarily defeated and insists that the United States must talk directly with them to reach a political settlement. Yusuf now believes that the recent start of direct dialogue between the United States and the Taliban may bring an eventual end to America's longest war.
Dr Moeed Yusuf's "Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia" is a thought provoking book as is his presentation at the talk4pak Silicon Valley event. Both should stimulate serious discussion of how regional nuclear powers like India and Pakistan can engage with each other more deeply to maintain peace and stability in their neighborhood. This will require both parties, India and Pakistan, to have sustained dialog to resolve core issues like Kashmir that underlie recurring crises.
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