The Future of a US controlled Pakistan: A Conversation with Simon Shercliff and Hassan Abbas – Harvard – Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official and senior advisor to Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, recently spoke to Simon Shercliff, First Secretary Foreign Security and Policy for the British Embassy, about the future of Pakistan. Their conversation touched on a range of topics, including the militants’ recent attacks on the Pakistani military, Pakistan’s relationship with India, Pakistan-UK relations, and U.S. aid to Pakistan.
Dr. Hassan Abbas: I am Hassan Abbas, I am a senior advisor to Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, working on issues of nuclear proliferation and religious extremism in Pakistan. I am also a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society, where I am working on South Asian issues.
Simon Shercliff: Thanks Hassan. I’m Simon Shercliff from the British Embassy in Washington, at the moment responsible for Afghanistan/Pakistan as one issue, and Iran as another. I’ve come up here for a couple of days at Harvard to pick the brains of people like Hassan on those two subjects.
So Hassan, thank you very much indeed for agreeing to meet me here today. We’ve been talking about some of the enduring thorny problems that exist in that part of the world, but I want to get your view of the strategic nexis between India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. First of all, where you see the major pressure points on all three countries, and secondly, where you see a solution come out of that?
The British government is very keen on trying to encourage some form of warming of the relationship between India and Pakistan such that a long term strategic discussion over the future of Kashmir and other areas of the region can be addressed. Steve Coll’s piece in The New Yorker a few months back outlined the sort of thing that could potentially be on the table for that.
