Contributed a chapter on Afghanistan and Pakistan in 'Field Diplomats', a book on Canadian foreign policy and guerrilla diplomacy. A pdf of the chapter will be posted here as it becomes available.
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Research report published by Foreign Policy in Focus, a Washington D.C. based think-tank.
Abstract: Nearly lost in the furor over the Israeli attack on the Turkish civilian aid flotilla is an incredible assessment delivered to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “Israel is turning from an asset to the United States to a burden,” testified Meir Dagan, the director of Mossad, on June 1. The entente between the U.S. and Israel has been so close for so long that it has become axiomatic. However, as the prominent political analyst Eqbal Ahmad correctly pointed out as early as the 1970s, American support for Israel stems not from historical guilt, well-heeled lobbies or other (often anti-Semitic) conspiracies, but from a fundamental alignment of interests. Such an alignment existed since the 1960s to the end of the Cold War. But U.S. and Israeli interests no longer fully coincide. Dagan’s statement demonstrates that Israel has begun to recognize that the strategic framework of American dominance in the Middle East is changing. Many of the recent events in the region, from the “peace process” and “proximity talks” to the spat between the United States and Israel and reactions around the Turkish flotilla incident, are encoded into American grand strategy in the region. Deciphering these historical interests sheds light on the direction of U.S.-Israeli relations and its consequences for the Middle East. READ FULL REPORT. Research report published by Foreign Policy in Focus, a Washington D.C. based think-tank.
Abstract: Why has the Pakistani army - the seventh-largest military machine in the world - battle-hardened in wars, ongoing border disputes, numerous external and internal campaigns, and peacekeeping missions, been so ineffective against the Taliban militia? A stock explanation from analysts and officials alike is that the Pakistani military, with conventional warfare against archenemy India as its raison d'être, possesses inadequate capability to wage a successful counterinsurgency campaign. Moreover, the army isn't sufficiently motivated to battle its compatriots and coreligionists. This conventional wisdom, however, is inadequate. It ignores Pakistan's long history of counter-insurgency, and obscures a deeper and more worrisome issue: Pakistan is facing ideological blowback from over five decades of using political Islam as a tool of domestic and foreign policy. Pakistan's predicament lies in the fundamental ideological orientation and mobilization of the state. READ FULL REPORT. Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations: History and Geopolitics in a Regional and International Context10/20/2008 Research report published by the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation based in Toronto. Report opens as .pdf document.
Abstract: The present crisis‐laden relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have numerous historical antecedents stretching back to British India, Pakistan’s predecessor in the modern state system. Historically conditioned antipathy and mistrust runs deep. Many of the paths to peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan require such a broader, deeper and historicized understanding of their relations. Further, the two countries inhabit prime geo-strategic real estate. As a result, the (often contradictory and hostile) interests of regional and global powers often intersect there. From nationalist border clashes to the Soviet invasion, and from the subsequent civil war in Afghanistan and the ascendancy of the Taliban, to the so‐called War on Terror, these conflicts have all been regionalized and/or internationalized, and include actors with transnational links. This complexity is one reason that an external hegemonic agenda can not simply be superimposed onto the region without creating the kind of turmoil that we are presently witnessing. READ FULL REPORT (link opens as .pdf file). |
ResearchIncludes selection of research/policy reports, book chapters and academic publications that are available online. |
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