Research Seminar: Moeed Yusuf on U.S. Crisis Management in S. Asia

Moeed Yusuf, an alumni of the Masters in International Relations program at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and Associate Vice President of the Asia Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace, gave a talk as part of the Pardee School Research Seminar Series on October 4, 2018.

Yusuf gave a talk entitled “U.S. Crisis Management in Regional Nuclear Environments,” that highlighted his recently-published book  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.

“The importance of ensuring the absence of nuclear war colors everything,” Yusuf said. “And so larger foreign policy interests of the U.S., for instance,are suspended in time during that crisis moment. Whatever else you have going on in the region — objectives you want to meet — gets suspended until the crisis deescalates.”

Drawing on the history of conflict between India and Pakistan, Yusuf described 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.

“What this means is you cannot ignore the role of the third party,” Yusuf said. “If you are a third-party policymaker — a U.S., Russian, British policymaker — you have to have plans in place for how you are going to manage environments which are nuclear.”

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.

The Pardee School Research Seminar Series is a forum for faculty and students to discuss and receive feedback on ongoing research. The series is a mix of presentations, works-in-progress sessions, and research workshops. Faculty and students based at BU and elsewhere are invited to present and attend the Research Seminar Series. Anyone interested in presenting should send an e-mail with name, affiliation, and a presentation description, with “Pardee Seminar” in the subject line, to: Mahesh Karra.