Opinion
Smoke and Mirrors
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: December 22, 2016
As Pakistan looks to draw a line under 2016, the scar tissue from this year’s security miscarriages is unlikely to heal overnight. The success of Islamabad’s national security turnarounds, old...
Opinion
Moving out of Foggy Bottom
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: November 6, 2016
As Hillary Clinton moves into the Oval, the question in Islamabad is whether a fresh administration will bring with it the promise of a Pak-US reset. Given the PML-N’s growing incapacity at...
Opinion
The Fragility of Nuclear Stability in South Asia
by: Dr. Rabia Akhtar
Date: November 1, 2016
To state the obvious, strategic stability in South Asia is fragile. While India and Pakistan have satisfactorily achieved the technical requirements for ensuring strategic stability by institutionalizing their nuclear command...
Publications
Second Opinion – The Uri Aftermath: Policy Options for Pakistan in a Changing Security Environment
Date: October 28, 2016
As Pakistan navigates new bends in a changing regional environment, tensions with India have both raised threat perceptions and stalled efforts to normalise relations. It is in the context of...
Opinion
Our Brand is Crisis
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: October 6, 2016
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the chances of escalation to war were assessed to be ‘between 1 in 3 and even’. A decade and a half since...
Conference and Research reports
Reviewing Indo-Pak Bilateral Relations: Quarterly Monitoring Brief April 2014 – June 2014
Date: September 11, 2016
This monitoring brief recaps significant developments in Indo-Pak relations between April 2014 and June 2014, including statements, visits, and policy initiatives. It is part of a series of monitoring briefs...
Opinion
Advantage Taliban
by: Fahd Humayun
Date: September 1, 2016
The war in Afghanistan is showing little sign of a seasonal let-up. As a successful Taliban campaign quashes hopes for a quick and easy settlement, the jury is still out...
Policy Brief
Reforming the Tribal Areas of Pakistan
by: Saad Rasool
Date: August 31, 2016
The demand for extending democracy to the tribal areas of Pakistan is not a new one. Often conflated with terrorism and border-fragility in international news, the Tribal Areas of Pakistan...
Opinion
Taxing the Poor
by: Ali Khizar
Date: August 30, 2016
There is a worm at the heart of the Pakistan government’s strategy on enhancing tax revenue. The tax to GDP ratio in Pakistan continues to remain abysmally low and while...
Annual Report (2015-2016)
Date: August 10, 2016
Pakistan’s interrupted encounters with democracy and diminished public input in governance have arrested the growth of institutions and rendered public services either too fragile or too disempowered to respond to...