Alumni Spotlight: Yusuf Publishes Book

Yusuf 6.8

Moeed Yusuf, an alumni of the Masters in International Relations program at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently published Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: U.S. Crisis Management in South Asia (Stanford University Press, 2018).

In the book, Yusuf outlines the threat of nuclear war as one of the gravest issues currently facing the global community. According to Yusuf, while a growing number of nations gain nuclear capabilities and the odds of nuclear conflict increase, nuclear deterrence strategies remain rooted in Cold War models that do not take into account regional conflict.

Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments offers an innovative theory of brokered bargaining to better understand and solve regional crises. As the world has moved away from the binational relationships that defined Cold War conflict while nuclear weapons have continued to proliferate, new types of nuclear threats have arisen. Yusuf proposes a unique approach to deterrence that takes these changing factors into account.

Drawing on the history of conflict between India and Pakistan, Yusuf describes the potential for third-party intervention to avert nuclear war. Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments lays out the ways regional powers behave and maneuver in response to the pressures of strong global powers. Moving beyond debates surrounding the widely accepted rational deterrence model, Yusuf offers an original perspective rooted in thoughtful analysis of recent regional nuclear conflicts. With depth and insight, Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments urges the international community to rethink its approach to nuclear deterrence.

Yusuf currently serves as Associate Vice President of the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is the editor of Pakistan’s Counterterrorism Challenge and Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia and co-editor of South Asia 2060 and Getting it Right in Afghanistan.

As a student in Boston University’s International Relations program, the predecessor of the Pardee School of Global Studies, in 2003 Yusuf met Dean Adil Najam, then an Assistant Professor and fellow Pakistan transplant, who has remained a mentor and friend since. While at Boston University, Yusuf also served as a fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.