Where current Pakistan-related "security" conversations mostly focus on the Pakistan army, Af-Pak, relations with India, Islamist movements, or nuclear weapons and proliferation, this project seeks fresh approaches and broader frameworks that address insecurities such as those posed by anemic economic development, explosive population growth, faltering public institutions, environmental degradation, resource mismanagement, and rising class and ethnic tensions. In exploring these issues, this project is especially interested in foregrounding Pakistani voices toward highlighting the often complex, surprising and capacious ways in which different groups of Pakistanis think about their individual and national “security.” By drawing new perspectives and topics into conversations about Pakistan’s “security”, this project offers alternative ways of thinking about policy and international relations in this part of the world.
This project will be run in conjunction with the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley. Our first event in this series is a conference to be held on February 27-28, 2015 in the Heyns Room, University of California, Berkeley Faculty Club.
Conference Program
February 27, 2015
Welcome & Introduction: Munis Faruqui, Neil Joeck
- Structural Deficits and Economic Insecurity: Dann Nasimullah
- Hawala and Financial Intelligence: Noman Baig
- Modernity and Socioeconomic Conditions in Southern Punjab: Ayesha Siddiqa
- PeaceNiche: Finding Space for Contested Issues: Sabeen Mahmud
- Private Electronic Media and Radicalization: Kiran Hassan
- Poetic Imagination: Nosheen Ali
- PONM and Ethno-nationalisms: Nukhbah Taj Langah
- Gwadar Port and the Necropolitics of National Identity: Hafeez Jamali
- Securing Water and Remaking National Space in India and Pakistan: Majed Akhter
- Informal Drivers of Social and Religious Instability: Matthew Nelson
- Humanizing Security: Samia Altaf
- What Does the Constitution have to do with Human Security?: Paula Newberg
February 28, 2015
- State Capacity and Nutrition: Shandana Khan Mohmand
- Population Density and Shared Kitchens: Naila Mahmood
- The Informal Economy: Mohammed Ali Jan
- Middle Class Views: Patronage, Alienation and the State: Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
- Middle Class Culture in Lahore: Ammara Maqsood
- Tenant Farmers and Civil Society: Mubbashir Rizvi
- Pious Masculinity and Islamic Order: Arsalan Khan
- Politics of Religious Sentiments: Sadia Saeed
- The State, Security and the Pakistani Shia Experience: Mashal Saif
- Summary, Conclusion & Conference Discussion: David Gilmartin, Kamran Ali
This effort is part of the Pakistan@Berkeley initiative.
