‘A German Perspective on Pakistan and its Big Neighbours’: A Talk by Professor Conrad Schetter

‘Power depends on economics and not on military forces’ – Watch Video

Professor Conrad Schetter, Associated Member of the Center for Development Research (ZEF), Directorate of the University of Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany recently addressed the members of The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) on A German Perspective on Pakistan and Its Big Neighbours. He is a notable scholar and some of his coauthored publications include Local Security-Making in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (2016), Security: What Is It? What Does It Do? (2016) and Protected Rather Than Protracted: Strengthening Displaced Persons in Peace Processes (2015). His key expertise concerns the civil-military nexus, the politics of interventions and local politics. Professor Schetter is also involved in numerous ongoing projects including On the phenomenon of so-called Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan and Protected rather than protracted – Strengthening refugees and peace.

In his talk on 13 December 2016 chaired by Dr Masuma Hasan, he emphasised Germany’s strong relationship with Pakistan pointing out in that regard that the name of Allama Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistan’s national poet, is very significant because he studied in Germany and was awarded his PhD from Munich University. He also highlighted that it is high time for Pakistan to realign its tactics in its own neighbourhood because in today’s global politics, economic power is more important than military or strategic power.

‘The Future of Afghanistan’: A Talk by Professor Marvin Weinbaum

Unfortunately Afghanistan’s future is rather bleak – Watch Video

Events in Afghanistan influence politics on the international stage. Pakistan has an uneasy relationship with the Afghans and India, in the form of premier Narendra Modi, has sought to gain political mileage by exploiting the historic misunderstandings across the so-called Durand Line. In rather interesting times, Marvin Weinbaum, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently a scholar-in-residence at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, delivered a lecture on The Future of Afghanistan at The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs  (PIIA) on 18 November 2016. He has worked for US Department of State Bureau of Intelligence Research for four years (1999-2003). PIIA Chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan moderated the lecture. Professor Weinbaum was clear that Afghanistan’s future is unfortunately not very bright because one-third of its territory – mainly the rural areas – is effectively controlled by the Taliban and other extremist groups.

These gains are not attributable to the Taliban’s reorganisation or rise in popularity. Rather they are bound up with the failure of the Kabul government to meet the expectation of the Afghan people. Our most learned and distinguished guest was clear that Pakistan influence on Taliban has receded significantly and he was of the view that Pakistan never was able to dictate to the Taliban even when they were in Kabul. He attacked Washington’s policy

Trump Card: Mastermind of America

Donald Trump means many things to many people. In this post Tehmina Mahmood offers her views on his rise to the White House.

The election of Donald Trump surprised the whole world as it went against the perception of American society where the characteristics of a president matter a lot. However, this time people ignored all the allegations levelled against Trump and it also gave rise to suspicions about the US electoral system and non-acceptance of a woman as a head of the country. ‘What went wrong’ was the question raised by the Clinton team itself. Many people came up with different narratives in this connection. However, an intriguing aspect of this debate was the role of FBI which was pinned down by the top aides of Hillary Clinton who blamed the Director of FBI James Comey for her defeat in the election. Just 11 days before the election, James Comey revealed that the FBI had discovered new emails related to the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state and then his statement to absolve her, actually helped to bolster Trump’s turnout.

The American mastermind seems to have preferred Trump over Hillary for certain reasons. There has been a general perception worldwide that America has lost the control over the world affairs once it had possessed. Even, people do not hesitate to term it as a declining power. Some people believe that instead of resolving problems, the Americans have multiplied them and, therefore, lost the confidence even of its allies. Some examples that can be cited, in this regard, are the following hot spots where the US failed to change the course in its favour.