Pardee Fellow Delivers Lecture on Pakistan’s Chronic Instability

Pardee Center Research Fellow Moeed Yusuf delivered a guest lecture on Pakistan’s chronic instability at the Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University on December 8, 2009. Yusuf was invited by the Institute’s Director, Mr. Sherman Teichman to speak to about 40 Tufts students who are part of the Institute.

During his presentation, Yusuf examined the multifaceted threats facing the Pakistani state and analyzed the potential for these to lead to state collapse. Specifically, he discussed Pakistan’s role in the War on Terror, the Pakistan-US relationship, the threat of Talibanization, concerns about ‘loose nukes’, and the economic and governance challenges. He was of the view that while the current wave of suicide bombings makes for a grim short-term prognosis, the Pakistani state itself is not in danger of failure. He also claimed that the loose nukes scenario is farfetched. He was far more pessimistic on Pakistan’s economic and governance performance and remained circumspect about the government’s ability to drive Pakistan out of the current economic crisis. Yusuf ended by pointing to the vibrancy in the civil society as a major positive that could see the state being forced to become more accountable over the long run. Yusuf forecasted continuing instability in Pakistan over the next decade after which a gradual return to normalcy could be expected.

Yusuf is also a Doctoral candidate and Senior Teaching Fellow at Boston University’s Political Science Department and is currently teaching a course on International Political Economy at the University’s Department of International Relations.