Document Downloads

Q1 - 2009

S. No.	Title	Author	Description	Link	Link
001	Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India, and Implications for U.S. Interests	K.Alan Kronstadt Speacialist in South Asian Affairs	On the evening of November 26, 2008, a number of well-trained militants came ashore from the Arabian Sea on small boats and attacked numerous high-profile targets in Mumbai, India, with automatic weapons and explosives. By the time the episode ended some 62 hours later, about 165 people, along with nine terrorists, had been killed and hundreds more injured. Among the multiple sites attacked in the peninsular city known as India’s business and entertainment capital were two luxury hotels—the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident—along with the main railway terminal, a Jewish cultural center, a café frequented by foreigners, a cinema house, and two hospitals. Six American citizens were among the 26 foreigners reported dead. Indian officials have concluded that the attackers numbered only ten, one of whom was captured.
002	Afghanistan Index	Jason H. Campbell Jeremy Shapiro For more information please contact Jason Campbell at jhcampbell@brookings.edu
003	President Obama's Policy Options in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)	Dr. Hassan Abbas / Report by Institute of Social Policy and Understanding (www.ispu.org), January 25, 2009	There is an emerging consensus among foreign policy experts that the growing insurgency and militancy in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) poses the greatest security challenge not only to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also to the United States. Some scholars even project that a major terrorist act with al-Qaeda footprints in the United States might result in an American strike and ground invasion of this area. President Barack Obama has repeatedly talked about stepping up military action in Afghanistan as a panacea to the expanding crisis in that country and hinted as early as August 2007 that if elected, he would sanction direct military strikes in FATA if there were “actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets” and if Pakistan failed to act. Situation has deteriorated in the region during the last year further complicating Obama’s policy options for stabilizing South Asia.
004	The Ordeals to Have Due Share of Transboundary River Water	Miah Muhammad Adel	The article studies over 100 meetings between India and Bangladesh, the resulting temporary water-sharing agreements on the Ganges water, and the Indian grand river networking plan and its potential downstream impact. The Indian Ganges branch, the Hugli, lost its navigability because of dam constructions on its tributaries.
005	The U.S. and rising powers	Michael Schiffer	In the 21st century, there is more and more global competition for power and resources. What role will the U.S. play? What kind of relationship will the U.S. have with the rest of the world?
006	Afghanistan - Opium Winter Assessment	United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime / Government of Afghanistan - Ministry of Counter Narcotics	This has been a hard winter for the people of Afghanistan. Last year’s drought and a food crisis have added increased hardship to regions grappling with poverty and plagued by insecurity. Concerns for personal safety have been compounded by concerns for food security and social protection. A positive development is that opium cultivation is down, at least when measured in physical terms (hectares and tonnes). The 18 provinces that were opium-free in 2008 are likely to remain that way in 2009, and four others Badakhshan, Baghlan, Faryab and Hirat) could join them with timely poppy elimination this spring. This will deepen the trend of the past few years that showed opium cultivation overwhelmingly concentrated in the seven most unstable provinces in the south and south west. Even in major poppy growing provinces like Hilmand, UNODC expects some decrease in opium cultivation in 2009.
007	Focus and Exit: An Alternative Strategy for the Afghan War	G i l l es Dorronsoro Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace	Objectives in Afghanistan must be reconciled with the resources available to pursue them. The mere presence of foreign soldiers fighting a war in Afghanistan is probably the single most important factor in the resurgence of the Taliban. The best way to weaken, and perhaps divide, the armed opposition is to reduce military confrontations. The main policy objective should be to leave an Afghan government that is able to survive a U.S. withdrawal. Strategy should differentiate three areas and allocate resources accordingly: strategic cities and transportation routes that must be under total Afghan/alliance control; buffers around strategic areas, where NATO and the Afghan army would focus their struggle against insurgents; and opposition territory, where NATO and Afghan forces would not expend effort or resources. Withdrawal will allow the United States to focus on the central security problem in the region: al-Qaeda and the instability in Pakistan.
008	THE JURISPRUDENCE OF DISSOLUTIONS: PRESIDENTIAL POWER TO DISSOLVE ASSEMBLIES UNDER THE PAKISTANI CONSTITUTION AND ITS DISCONTENTS	Osama Siddique Associate Professor and Head of Department of Law & Policy, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan. My profound thanks to Mr. Abid Hassan Minto, Mr. Khawaja Harris Ahmad, Dr. Ali Cheema, Mr. Roger Michael Normand, Mr. Syed Ali Murtaza, Mr. Bilal Hasan Minto, Mr. Zulfiqar Hameed and various colleagues in my Department—whose very valuable input helped shape and sharpen the arguments here; my sincere acknowledgement of Syed Imad-ud-din Asad for his able and diligent research assistance; and my eternal debt and gratitude to my parents for their constant affection, inspiration and support. I would like to dedicate this Article to my lovely children Hatim Siddique and Nawaal Siddique, for whom and other Pakistani children I ardently hope for a Pakistan governed under a legitimate and progressive constitutional framework.	Since its emergence on August 14, 1947, Pakistan’s political and constitutional evolution has been repeatedly interrupted by praetorian rule through several impositions of martial law—the most recent one imposed after General Pervez Musharraf’s military coup in 1999. Musharraf’s coup was legitimized by the judiciary, which has been habitually relegated to the task of validating army take-overs through questionable jurisprudence. Musharraf continues to hold the dual position of President of Pakistan and Chief of Army Staff, thus epitomizing the military’s historically dual role in Pakistan. The primary tool employed by him for controlling the recently revived political process is the highly controversial Article 58(2)(b) of the Pakistani Constitution, which entrenches tremendous political power in his person. This provision was originally inserted into the Pakistani Constitution in 1985 by Pakistan’s previous military dictator, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (“Zia”).11 Zia had also assumed power through a military coup in 1977 and ruled Pakistan mostly through martial law until his controversial death in 1988 in a mysterious air crash.
009	Afghanistan and Pakistan: Understanding a Complex Threat Environment”	Joshua T. White	Testimony of Joshua T. White Research Fellow, Center on Faith & International Affairs, Institute for Global Engagement; Ph.D. Candidate, Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies Before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs On “Afghanistan and Pakistan: Understanding a Complex Threat Environment” March 4, 2009
010	Current Trends in Islamist Ideology	Joshua T.White EDITED BY: Hillel Fradkin, Husain Haqqani, Eric Brown, and Hassan Mneimneh Hudson Institute Center on Islam, Democracy, and the Future of the Modern World	Vigilante Islamism in Pakistan: Religious Party Responses to the Lal Masjid Crisis
011	Needed: A Comprehensive U.S. Policy Towards Pakistan	The Atlantic Council of the united states	The Atlantic Council of the United States promotes constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting the international challenges of the twenty-first century. The Council comprises a non-partisan network of leaders who aim to bring ideas to power and to give power to ideas by: • stimulating dialogue and discussion about critical international issues with a view to enriching public debate and promoting consensus on appropriate responses from the administration; the Congress; the corporate and nonprofit sectors; the media in the United States; and leaders in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. • conducting educational and exchange programs for successor generations of U.S. leaders so that they will come to value U.S. international engagement and have the knowledge and understanding necessary to develop effective policies.
012	Pakistan's Islamist Frontier	Joshua T. White	We are pleased to announce the release of Pakistan's Islamist Frontier: Islamic Politics and U.S. Policy in Pakistan's North-West Frontier, by Joshua T. White. This monograph, based on fieldwork conducted in northwest Pakistan, is the first volume of CFIA's new Religion & Security Monograph Series. Chapter I, The Rise and Scope of Islamic Political Influence, provides a concise history of religio-political activity in the Frontier, and outlines several important and recurring patterns of Islamic politics which are essential to understanding the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) today. Chapter II, The MMA's Islamist Governance, details the 2002-2007 tenure of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamist alliance in the NWFP, which represented the first sustained attempt at Islamist governance at the provincial level in Pakistan's history. The chapter also draws lessons from the MMA's interactions with the international community, other Islamist groups, federal authorities, and Deobandi madrassah networks.
013	Afghanistan: Ending the Thirty-Year War	Martin Barber / THEWORLDTODAY.ORG	Billions of dollars have been spent, United States President Barack Obama has promised seventeen thousand more US troops, but still the situation in Afghanistan’s thirty-year war gets worse. A new approach is needed, one grounded in an understanding of Afghan history. But this approach does not involve presidential elections, so the polls planned for August must be put aside. A forthright exchange of views Afghan-style, is better than voting on a battleground.
014	Caught in the Conflict: Civilians and the international security strategy in Afghanistan	Matt Waldman, Head of Policy, Oxfam International, Afghanistan	As NATO has command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has the primary international security mandate for Afghanistan, the policies adopted by NATO have major repercussions for the safety and welfare of Afghan civilians. With the steady deterioration of security conditions in Afghanistan, and the severe, adverse implications for development and reconstruction activities, we strongly urge NATO and its member states to take the steps set out in this paper. The wider international community and Afghan government should also support the elaboration and implementation of these recommendations.
015	MARTIAL LAW AND LAWYERS: THE CRISIS OF LEGAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN AND KEY AREAS OF REFORM	Osama Siddique (Ph.D Candidate at Harvard Law School and Associate Professor at LUMS)	Since its creation in 1947, Pakistan’s political and constitutional evolution has been arrested by praetorian rule through several impositions of martial law—the most recent one after a military coup in 1999. The world’s seventh nuclear power is a geo-politically significant, but highly unstable state with a weak democratic culture and growing inner fissures caused by political obscurantism, religious radicalism, economic stagnation, institutional decline and growing lawlessness. In this chaotic context, the Pakistani justice system finds itself overburdened and incapacitated, not the least because of the regressing quality and professionalism of those who make up its constituent parts. Pakistan’s justice system and legal community has remained or, as many argue, has been kept underdeveloped primarily because the country has been under direct military rule for more than half of its existence.1 The vital nexus between the quality of legal education and the quality of justice is universally recognized.2 A socially relevant, high standard of legal education produces elements of change and champions justice. Quality research inspires and fuels an environment of analysis, debate, critique, and as a result, a culture of tolerance and democracy. Additionally, such education boosts the caliber and professionalism of legal professionals, judicial institutions, and society in general. Lawyers and legally trained individuals form the backbone of a vibrant, informed, and proactive civil society that strives for political, social, and economic justice. Legal reform is critical in transforming the justice system in Pakistan.