In recent months, Pakistani security forces have been battling extremists from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, and other interconnected networks of terrorist groups in the country’s northern districts. Insurgents routinely attack local authorities and have forced over a million persons to flee. These developments are sparking fears that as extremist influence spreads, an al Qaeda ally could get its hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. How serious is the militant threat to Pakistan? How does this threat affect U.S. interests? How reliable of an ally is Pakistan to the United States? And what are the prospects for stability in the region? Join us as we explore these questions.
Speaker Biographies:
- Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin has been president of the Middle East Institute since March 2007. Before that she served as deputy high commissioner for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. As assistant administrator in the Asia-Near East Bureau for the US Agency for International Development, Chamberlin held posts in Iraq, South Asia and the Middle East, among other national and international assignments.
- Mukhtar A. Khan is a Pakistani Pashtun journalist-cum-analyst based in Washington, DC. Since 9/11, he has extensively covered Pakistan’s troubled frontier, both for the local and international media, including the BBC, Mail on Sunday, and Voice of America, and has visited the region frequently. Currently, he is working on a book on increasing trends of militancy in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions and its spillover to the rest of the world. He is also working as Chief Media Strategist for AfPak Media Solutions and Senior Advisor to the Pashtun Focus, besides contributing analytical articles for The Jamestown Foundation and the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point.
- Ken Luongo is president of the Partnership for Global Security. He has experience in fissile material control, nuclear terrorism and proliferation, and geographic expertise in Pakistan, India, Russia and the former Soviet Union. Previously, he served as senior advisor to the secretary of energy for nonproliferation policy and the director of the Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of Energy. Luongo has served with the Senate and House Armed Services Committee and has worked extensively on Russian and Pakistani nuclear security issues.
- Malou Innocent is a Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute. Her primary research interests are U.S. foreign policy toward Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China. She recently traveled to Pakistan through the Ford Foundation. She has published reviews and articles on national security and international affairs in scholarly and policy journals such as Survival, Congressional Quarterly, and Harvard International Review, as well as in publications such as Armed Forces Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal Asia, and the Huffington Post. She has appeared as a guest analyst on BBC News, Fox News Channel, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, CNBC Asia, and Reuters.
- Christopher Preble is the Cato Institute’s director of foreign policy studies. His book The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous and Less Free documents the enormous costs of America’s military power, and proposes a new grand strategy to advance U.S. national security. He is also the author of Exiting Iraq: How the U.S. Must End the Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda, and John F. Kennedy and the Missile Gap. In addition, Preble has published over 100 articles in major publications, including USA Today, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He has appeared on many television and radio news networks including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, NPR, and the BBC. Preble was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy and is a veteran of the Gulf War, having served onboard USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) from 1990 to 1993.
