The Middle East Institute is proud to present Christine Fair, assistant professor of peace and security studies at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, for a discussion of her book, Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War (Oxford University Press, 2014). Based on an unprecedented analysis of decades' worth of the Pakistan army's defense publications, Fair concludes that the army's perception is that its success depends on its resistance to India's purported drive for regional hegemony and the territorial status quo. Fair argues that because the army is unlikely to abandon these preferences, Pakistan will remain a destabilizing force in world politics for the foreseeable future. After the discussion, Fair will sign copies of her book.
Biographies:
Christine Fair is an assistant professor in the Peace and Security Studies Program within Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, she has served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and as a senior research associate in USIP's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She is also a senior fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia. Dr. Fair has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books including Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space (OUP, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008), and Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (USIP, 2006), among others, and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. She is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, International Studies Association, American Political Science Association, American Institute of Pakistan Studies and serves on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals.
Amb. Wendy Chamberlin has been president of the Middle East Institute since 2007. Previously, as deputy high commissioner for refugees from 2004 to 2007, she supervised the administration of the U.N. humanitarian organization. A 29-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, she was ambassador to Pakistan from 2001 to 2002, when she played a key role in securing Pakistan’s cooperation in the U.S.-led campaign against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on September 11. Her opinion pieces have been published in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, and Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.