Adil Najam
Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy
Director, Pardee Center
Professor, International Relations, Boston University
Professor, Geography and Environment, Boston University
anajam@bu.edu
617-358-4002
Education
PhD, MSc, MSc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Specialization in Negotiation, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School; BSc, University of Engineering and Technology (UET)
Expertise
Globalization, International Development, Environmental Policy, Climate Change, South Asia and Pakistan; Muslim world; Philanthropy; International Trade; Future Studies.
Biography
Dr. Adil Najam is the Frederick S. Pardee Professor of Global Public Policy at Boston University. He also serves as the Director of the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and a Professor of International Relations and of Geography and Environment.
Prof. Adil Najam has served as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), work for which the IPCC was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore. In 2008 he was nominated by the United Nations Secretary General to serve on the United Nations Committee on Development Policy (UN CDP). In 2009 he was awarded one of Pakistan’s highest civil awards, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) medal by the President of Paksitan.
Prof. Najam has also taught at MIT, University of Massachusetts and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human well-being.
Prof. Najam has written nearly 100 scholarly papers and book chapters, and his recent books include: Pakistanis in America: Portrait of a Giving Community (2006); Trade and Environment Negotiations: A Resource Book (2006); Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment (2006); Environment, Development and Human Security: Perspectives from South Asia (2003); and Civic Entrepreneurship (2002).
He is a past winner of MIT’s Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, and the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Prof. Najam also serves on the editorial boards of various scholarly publications, including Global Governance, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, The Journal of Ecological Economics, Annual Editions: Environment, and The Encyclopedia of Earth. Prof. Najam is frequently interviewed by and writes for the popular media and is the founding editor of the blog Pakistaniat.com.
Adil Najam is an expert in international diplomacy and development. His research interests include sustainable development, Muslim and South Asian politics, environmental politics in developing countries, and philanthropy among immigrant communities in the United States. Much of his work has focused on longer-term global policy problems, especially those related to human well-being and sustainable development. He contributed to Pakistan’s first environmental policy document, as well as to that country’s report to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, has worked closely with governments and civil society in both industrialized and developing countries, and regularly collaborates with the United Nations. Prof. Najam is a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), a Visiting Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), and serves on the Boards of the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR) and the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.
A profile of Prof. Adil Najam inThe Boston Globe can be found here.