Jehangir Karamat

Former Chief of Pakistan Army.
Ambassador to USA.
Founder and Director Spearhead Research.

Expertise: Defense Security | International Affairs.

General Karamat joined Pakistan Army Armored Corps in 1961. He is a graduate of the National Defense College, the Command and Staff College, Quetta, and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has a Masters degree in International Relations.

General Karamat's has been the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and Chief of General Staff (CGS). He also served in Saudi Arabia as the Commander of the Independent Armored Brigade Group. He was appointed the Army Chief in 1995. He was given the additional post of chairmanship of Joint Chiefs of Staff. He became the Ambassador to the United States in 2004. After ambassadorship, General Jehangir Karamat founded a socio-political policy and analysis institute, Spearhead Research, which focuses on social, economic, military and political issues concerning Pakistan and Afghanistan. General Jehangir Karamat is the director and contributor to the Spearhead Research Institute.

Christine Fair

University of Chicago
B.S. in Biological Chemistry
M.A. from the Harris School of Public Policy as well as an M.A in South Asian Languages and Civilizations

Expertise: South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal) Territorial and Low-Intensity Conflict | Internal Security Reform, Terrorism and Political Extremism | Political Islam, Civil–Military Relations | Economics and Conflict

C. Christine Fair is a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation. Prior to rejoining RAND, she served as a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul and as a senior research associate in USIP's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. Prior to joining USIP in April 2004, she was an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Her research focuses upon the security competition between India and Pakistan, Pakistan's internal security, the causes of terrorism in South Asia, and U.S. strategic relations with India and Pakistan. She has authored and co-authored several books and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In recent years, her research has concentrated upon the security competition between India and Pakistan, Pakistan's internal security, and U.S. strategic relations with India and Pakistan. She also focuses upon various empirical questions with regards to the phenomena of political violence and terrorism. 

Feroz Khan

Brigadier General (retired) Pakistan Army.
Currently at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA.

Expertise: Nuclear and Missile issues.

Brigadier General (retired) Feroz Khan has served with the Pakistani Army for 30 years. He served with numerous assignments in the United States, Europe, and South Asia. He has experienced combat action and command on active fronts on the line of control in Siachin Glacier and Kashmir. Most recently he held the post of Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs, within the Strategic Plans Division, Joint Services Headquarters. Among his academic degrees, General Khan holds an M.A. from the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

General Khan has made key contributions in formulating and advocating Pakistan's security policy on nuclear and conventional arms control and strategic stability in South Asia. He has produced recommendations for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented Pakistan in several multilateral and bilateral arms control negotiations. He has written and participated in several security related national and international conferences and seminars and has also been teaching as a visiting faculty member at the Department of the Defense and Strategic Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

General Khan has held a series of visiting fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Studies and Arms Control; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the Brookings Institution; the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; and the Cooperative Monitoring Center, Sandia National Laboratory. General Khan is now a Visiting Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Stephen Cohen

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1967; M.A. (1959), B.A. (1958), University of Chicago
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution
Author and former professor
Conducts research on proliferation and the militaries of India and Pakistan.

Expertise: India |Pakistan| South Asian security and proliferation issues

Stephen Cohen joined the Brookings Institution as Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies in 1998 after a career as a professor of Political Science and History at the University of Illinois. In 2004 he was named by the World Affairs Councils of America as one of America’s five hundred most influential people in the area of foreign policy. Dr. Cohen is the author, co-author or editor of over twelve books, mostly on South Asian security issues, the most recent being Four Crises and a Peace Process: American Engagement in South Asia (2007) and The Idea of Pakistan (2004), and an edited volume published by the National Academy of Science that explores the application of technology to the prediction, prevention or amelioration of terrorist acts. A book on the future of the Indian military is now in progress.

In early 2008 Dr. Cohen was Visiting Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, where he taught a course on the politics of manmade and natural disaster. In Asia he has also taught in Japan (Keio University) and India (Andhra University). He has consulted for numerous foundations and government agencies and was a member of the Policy Planning Staff (Department of State) from 1985-87. Dr. Cohen is currently a member of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on International Security and Arms Control, and was the founder of several arms control and security-related institutions in the U.S. and South Asia. He received undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Chicago, and the PhD in Political Science and Indian Studies from the University of Wisconsin.

Naeem Salik

Brigadier (retired) Pakistan Army
Previously Director, Arms Control & Disarmament Affairs, Strategic Plans Division at the Joint Staff Headquarter
Visiting fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution. Currently at the Middle East Institute Washington DC.

Expertise: International Security | Non-proliferation and Missile Systems.

Shahid Javed Burki

Well known economist with several books to his credit.
Formerly member of World Bank and has vast international experience.
He has written extensively on Pakistan—its economic. political and security situation.

Expertise: Pakistan’s Economic, Political and Security situation.

Shahid Javed Burki was the former Finance Minister of Pakistan, is the Chief Executive Officer of EMP Financial Advisors, LLC. He served at the World Bank for 25 years (1974–99), as Division Chief and Senior Economist, Policy Planning and Program Review Department; Senior Economist and Policy Adviser, the Office of the Vice President of External Relations; Director, International Relations Department of that vice-presidency; Director of China and Mongolia; and Vice President of the Latin American and Caribbean region. He is coauthor of Sustaining Reform with a US-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (2006). His other publications include Pakistan: Development Choices for the Future (1986, Oxford University Press); Pakistan: Continuing Search for Nationhood (1991, Westview Press, Boulder, CO); Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood (1999, Westview Press); and Pakistan: A Historical Dictionary (1999, Scarecrow Press, London).

Fakir Aijazuddin

OBE, FCA
Currently Director Studies at National School of Public Policy, National Management College Lahore.

Expertise: Vast Experience of corporate world at high level positions.

Fakir Syed Aijazuddin has had a distinguished professional career as a Chartered Accountant at a senior level in the private and public sectors, both in Pakistan and abroad. F.S. Aijazuddin is an accomplished author covering History, Culture, Art and Foreign Policy of Pakistan, publishing 11 books since 1986 (on subjects like the History of Lahore, Dr. Henry Kissinger’s secret visit to China in July 1971 and President Richard Nixon’s policy towards Pakistan during 1969-1974, and a recently published volume of memoirs).

In 1994, he became the Honorary British Consul at Lahore. Also, in 1997, he was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire). He is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Lahore Museum, an International Councilor of the Asia Society (New York) and the Country Representative for Asia House, London.

He is an internationally recognized art-historian. He is a feature writer for DAWN, Pakistan’s leading daily English language newspaper.

Carey Schofield

Well known writer and journalist.
Currently UK based and a Leverhulme Scholar at Oxford University.

Expertise: Russia, military systems and security issues.

Carey Schofield is a writer and journalist with a long-standing interest in security and defense issues. She read English and Theology at Clare College, Cambridge and then worked in publishing for several years. She has written for various newspapers and magazines, and has lectured and broadcast on Russian and European defense-related issues.

She has a particular interest in studying contemporary armies in their cultural, political and historical context, and spent many years writing about the Soviet, and subsequently Russian, Armed Forces. She is the author of Inside the Soviet Army (London, 1991, Headline) a survey of the then five Armed Forces, based on two years of research and interviews with serving personnel at all levels. The Russian Elite: Inside Spetsnaz and the Airborne Forces (London, 1993, Greenhill) is an account of the evolution of the Soviet/ Russian Airborne Forces and of the GRU Spetsnaz Brigades, based on extensive interviews with serving and retired soldiers and officers.

From 1998 to 2002 she organised a series of trilateral conferences at Wilton Park, bringing together British, French and Russian policy-makers.

She is currently engaged on a major study of the Pakistan Armed Forces, in close collaboration with the Army Staff in Rawalpindi. In this connection she travels frequently to Pakistan.

She is also working on the evolution of the European Security and Defence Policy and has created and convened a series of workshops involving senior British and French officials.

Justin Polin

Public Policy Professional
Researcher/Analyst

Expertise: South Asia – National Security Affairs – Strategic Communications

Justin Polin works as a researcher at the Hudson Institute for former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. There he contributes to the work of the Center for National Security Strategies.
Mr. Polin earned his M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from the Institute of World Politics, and he earned his B.A. in Political Science/International Relations from Columbia University.
His past experience includes work at the American Enterprise Institute, at the Project for the New American Century, and in the office of U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher.
Mr. Polin has written about U.S-Pakistan relations, constitutional issues of Pakistan, the ideological foundation of Indian and Pakistani foreign policy, and Kashmir. He has also written about U.S. national security policy issues including strategic information policy, civil society construction, and democracy promotion.

Farrukh J Karamat

MBA (from IBA Karachi);
MSc. Finance (from Cass Business School, London).

Expertise: International banking finance and Strategic Management.

Farrukh Karamat has worked within the financial sector for over a decade, and has extensive experience in Corporate Finance, Investment Banking and Equity Research. Recently as a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Warwick, he undertook research within the area of Corporate Reputation, Investment Banking, and Mergers & Acquisitions. He has presented and published his research findings at leading forums, including the Reputation Institute and the Academy of Marketing Science.  

In the past he has written a number of articles focusing on the socio-economic issues in Pakistan, which have appeared in The News and The Nation.

Zahid U Kramet


Expertise: Writer on International and National issues.

Currently Project Director at Spearhead Research.

He has been a weekly columnist for The Nation, Assisting Editor (Quality, News section), Assistant Editor, The Post, writing columns and editorials.

Haider Ali Hussain Mullick

M.A. Public Policy, B.A. Economics,
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Independent policy analyst.
Adjunct Fellow at Spearhead Research

Expertise: US Foreign Policy towards South Asia and Middle East.

Senior Fellow, Joint Special Operations University and Associate at the Pakistan Security Research Unit, University of Bradford.

Haider Ali Hussein Mullick Senior Fellow, Joint Special Operations University, conducts research on U.S. Foreign Policy toward South Asia and Middle East. He is also an Research Associate at the Pakistan Security Research Unit, University of Bradford, UK. He has previously researched at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Hudson Institute’s Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World.

During his career, he has focused on security, socio-economic, and geopolitical issues of Pakistan, Afghanistan and South Asia. Haider’s editorials have appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, Daily Times, The News and Pakistan Link. His policy briefs/articles have appeared in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Oxford Analytica, Pakistan Security Research Unit, University of Bradford’s Policy Brief, Jane’s Policy Brief, and Heritage Foundation’s Backgrounder (forthcoming)

Mahmood Shah

Formerly Secretary , Pakistan’s Federally Administered tribal Areas (FATA).

Expertise: Vast knowledge and experience of NWFP and Pakistan – Afghanistan relations.

Brigadier (Retired) Mahmood Shah hails from Hoti village in Mardan district. He received his education in Mardan and Karachi before joining the army.

During his army career, he has mostly worked in Balochistan and Azad Kashmir. After his retirement, he was offered to become the home secretary of Balochistan but he refused because he wanted to serve in his home province, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). In 2000, his wish was granted and he became the Secretary for Home and Tribal Affairs in NWFP.

When in 2003 situation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) deteriorated, he was made Secretary Security for the areas. During his tenure, the government launched operations in FATA in connection with the war on terror against Al-Qaeda and Taliban. As a result of these operations, some high-profile militants were also nabbed. He worked on this post for a little more than two years.

Saad Muhammad Khan

Formerly Pakistan’s Defense Advisor in Kabul.

Expertise: Security Issues, NWFP and Afghanistan.