Najam Discusses Post-Pandemic South Asia at Atlantic Council
On Monday, February 12, 2021, Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, participated in an Atlantic Council panel on Pakistan’s economic and regional environment in a post-pandemic world.
Najam joined moderator Shuja Nawaz, Distinguished Fellow of the South Asia Center, and panelists Dr. Vali Nasr, Professor of International Affairs and Middle East Studies and former Dean at Johns Hopkins-SAIS; and Dr. Huma Baqai, Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, and former Associate Dean at the Institute of Business Administration.
Najam began by talking about “The World After Coronavirus,” a video series produced by the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future in which Najam interviewed over 100 prominent scholars, leaders, and thinkers about what COVID-19 means for the world. Based on his discussions, Najam’s insight was that global politics was turbulent even before the pandemic, and the pandemic is going to shape political realities in Pakistan, especially in the sphere of international affairs. He said that the internal dynamics of Pakistani politics remain the same, but the one external factor – the U.S.-China rivalry – has become even more apparent.
Najam also mentioned the importance of youth education during the pandemic, as 60% of Pakistan’s population is 30 years or less.
A recording of the event can be viewed below.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who also served as the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about Dean Najam on his faculty profile.