September 12, 2014
Professor Abbas will focus on his research findings about Taliban activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan and assess the security threat posed by the two groups in the context of perennial rivalry between India and Pakistan, Pakistan's nuclear proliferation track record and the drawdown of the NATO/US forces in Afghanistan. He will also deliberate upon the US policy choices in the broader South West Asia.
Hassan Abbas is professor and chair of the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs in Washington, DC. He is also a senior adviser at the Asia Society. Previously, he served as the distinguished Quaid i Azam chair professor at Columbia University and a senior adviser at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He holds a PhD. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, an LLM in International Law from the Nottingham University, UK and MA in Political Science from Punjab University, Pakistan. He regularly appears as an analyst on media including CNN, ABC, BBC, C-Span, and Aljazeera, and writes pieces for various leading international newspapers and academic publications. His latest book, The Taliban Revival (Yale University Press, June 2014) chronicles the Taliban’s survival and resurgence after 2001, through firsthand research and interviews in the area, and argues that understanding the causes of “talibanization” is essential for reversing its momentum in the region.