The DSS department held its third collaborative workshop on nuclear issues with its partners, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace & the Henry L Stimson Centre, Washington DC titled “Deterrence Stability in South Asia,” on January 11-12, 2012 at the department. Like the previous workshops, this event also was to provide young scholars and researchers in the field of strategic studies, a chance to express their views and share their findings with experts in the field. The speakers comprised of young DSS faculty, phd scholars, and young practitioners in the field.
The key note speaker Gen (retd) Ehsan ul Haq in his opening address said that deterrence stability in South Asia is profoundly affected by the trends of selectivity and exceptionalism. The former JCSC chief said that India is the principal beneficiary of such trends. Pakistan, he said, was a reluctant entrant into the nuclear order. He said that Pakistan would maintain its policy of credible, minimum deterrence and tactical nuclear weapons foreclose India’s provocative Cold Start Doctrine. Pakistan, he said, had not developed nuclear weapons for war-fighting which are weapons of last resort. George Perkovich of Carnegie Endowment said that deterrence is not automatic and lots of hard work is required to achieve stability. The workshop covered the themes regarding Challenges to Deterrence Stability – Pakistan & US Perspectives, India – Pakistan – China Triad & Deterrence Stability, Enhancing Stability through CBMs or Other Means and the Non Proliferation Regime & Regional Stability. speakers comprised of Sadia Tasleem, Muhammad Sadiq, Adil Sultan Muhammad, Zafar Yusufzai and Haleema Saadia from the DSS department, Salman Bittani, Aamir Ali khan, Aarish ullah Khan and Mr Fazalur Rehman. Whereas the US team comprised of George Perkovich, Toby Dalton, Li Bin, Feroz Hasan Khan besides Syed Rifaat Hussain, Ejaz Haider and Khalid Banuri as speakers and chairs. The workshop concluded over a media interaction session moderated by renowned journalist, Syed Talat Hussain, in which key media persons namely Mr Ejaz Haider, Mr Imtiaz Gul and S M Hali working on Pakistan US strategic relations shared their candid views with the workshop participants in a roundtable interactive discussion.