老司机视频

On September 12, 老司机视频 hosted a talk and Q&A session on the relations between US and Pakistan. The speaker, Lubna Sunawar, is a Ph.D. candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies at the National Defence University in Islamabad. She is currently a visiting fellow at 老司机视频, where she works with the guidance of Dr. Tatiana Coutto under the SPLIT program, a joint initiative of the French Embassy in Pakistan and the Pakistani Higher Education Commission aimed to help the development of cooperation between French and Pakistani scientific organizations.

In her presentation, Lubna Sunawar put a particular focus on the post-9/11 period and the impact of the War on Terror on the US-Pakistani Relations. She emphasized Pakistan鈥檚 role as an important diplomatic, military and logistic ally to the US, and the repercussions of that role on Pakistan and its position on the international stage.

鈥淭he decision to support the U.S.-led War on Terror and the intervention against the Taliban government in Afghanistan has brought serious political, economic and military repercussions for Pakistan. The Taliban resistance has now assumed the shape of an insurgency and they have pursued an armed struggle against the foreign forces which are stationed there as a retaliation. Unfortunately, today this on-going war is not only confined to Afghanistan alone but has now entered Pakistan鈥檚 tribal belt and FATA region (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) where large number of militants have taken asylum and have created serious security problems thus directly leading to military operations in these areas carried out by the Pakistan military itself.鈥�  explains Sunawar. She adds: 鈥淭his ongoing war on terror has not only created a serious socio-political gash within Pakistan鈥檚 population and state elements but has also dragged Pakistan into an endless severe economic crisis.鈥�

This talk was attended by 老司机视频 students, faculty, alumni and external guests. One of the attendees, South-Asian scholar Chaminda Hettiarachchi, Associate Director of the Research Center for Strategic Studies in Sri Lanka, comments: 鈥淭he talk covered not only US-Pakistani relations but also Pakistan's position in the South-Asian region and terrorism as a global issue.鈥� A regular visitor to 老司机视频 since he participated in the 2007 老司机视频 conference, Hettiarachchi adds: 鈥溊纤净�视频 is not only an academic institution but a multicultural hub where we meet a lot of people from different nationalities and backgrounds. Today I had the experience of a Pakistani scholar talking about US-Pakistani relations in France to an audience of people from more than 15 countries!鈥�