CLICK HERE FOR A WRITE-UP OF THE EVENT
WHEN: 1:00pm -2:00pm, Thursday 22nd July 2010
WHERE: Committee Room 16, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend please RSVP to: joy.napier@henryjacksonsociety.org
For all media enquiries, please contact: lauren.gunias@henryjacksonsociety.org
or 020 7340 4520
Winning the war in Afghanistan is a critical priority for the Western coalition. Following the success of allied forces in Iraq, and the return of that country to struggles that take place largely in the political domain, it was hoped that the same could be speedily achieved in Afghanistan. However, the prolonged and difficult war in Afghanistan has so far shown otherwise. Yet, notwithstanding the recent turmoil at the top of the U.S. war effort, there is now a new strategy and more forces, which may after nine long years finally effect a positive change on the stale dynamics of the fighting. The appointment of General Petraeus, famed for his successful implementation of the surge strategy in Iraq, has given added credibility to the new effort in Afghanistan and President Obama’s words to the effect that the change in personnel came on account of the untenable political situation, rather than any dissatisfaction with strategy or performance, ring true.
Grave challenges remain however. One of the biggest is the importance of securing the support of Afghanistan’s neighbours. It is above all well understood that the notoriously porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan allows for the movement of insurgents between the two countries, to engage in their asymmetric war against the coalition – and it is no secret that some of these groups have traditionally enjoyed Pakistan’s state backing as a means to influence its ‘near abroad’. Having previously seen this as a policy tool in the balance of power as part of its regional conflict with India, Pakistan is now expending some considerable effort to contain the problem, but there remain suspicions of a strategic calculation - official, renegade or somewhere inbetween – that leave a residual question mark over the relationship between Pakistan’s security services and terrorist groups. Indeed, this problem is only too indicative of the immense internal political challenges the country faces, a lack of political cohesion that has led some to argue it is not possible to govern Pakistan successfully for long and indeed that there remains a danger of its collapse into what many believe would be the most dangerous failed state in the world.
By kind invitation of Tobias Ellwood MP, the Henry Jackson Society is pleased to be able to invite you to a discussion with the Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management, Dr Ajai Sahni. Dr Sahni was the founding member of the Institute for Conflict Management and is a globally cited expert on terrorism. He gave evidence to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs in the UK Parliament on the “core of Islamic Terror” in October 2006 and is an in-demand commentator valued for his expertise on this and related issues and explaining its intricate and hard to fathom dynamics, not least as a prominent source of reason in the wake of the Mumbai terror bombings in 2008.
TIME: 1.00-2.00pm
DATE: Thursday 22nd July 2010
VENUE: Committee Room 16, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
To attend please RSVP to: joy.napier@henryjacksonsociety.org
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr Ajai Sahni is a Founding Member & Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management. The Institute focuses on research, documentation and consultancies on issues relating to internal security, primarily in South Asia. The Executive Director is responsible for research and administration; and with oversight of and participation in consultancy projects, including advisory projects undertaken for various National or State governments.
Sahni is Editor of the South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR), a weekly service that provides regular data, assessments and news briefs on terrorism, insurgencies and sub-conventional warfare, on counter-terrorism responses and policies, as well as on related economic, political, and social issues, in the South Asian region. He is also the Executive Editor of Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution, the quarterly journal of the Institute, and Executive Director of the South Asia Terrorism Portal, launched in March 2000. In addition he is a Member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia pacific - India (CSCAP India).
Dr. Sahni has also collaborated on projects with the United Nations University, specifically, on the UNU project on the Management of Insurgencies; and on the UNU World Governance Survey. He has written extensively on issues relating to conflict and development in South Asia, and has jointly edited (with K.P.S. Gill) Terror & Containment: Perspectives on India’s Internal Security and The Global Threat of Terror: Ideological, Material and Political Linkages (2002). He received a Ph.D. from Delhi University with his thesis on Democracy, Dissent & the Right to Information, and has a career that spans both the print and electronic media, as well as research.
