Context
Stanley Albert Wolpert
Stanley Wolpert is a foremost western historian of India and Pakistan. He is a professor of history emeritus at UCLA and specializes in the modern political history of India and Pakistan.
His popular work includes Encyclopedia of India, Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India (OUP, 2006), India, Third Edition (2005), Gandhi’s Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi (OUP, 2002), Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny (OUP, 1996), Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan (OUP, 1993), Jinnah of Pakistan (OUP, 1984), and Roots of Confrontation in South Asia (OUP, 1982).
Shahid Javed Burki
Shahid Javed Burki is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Chairman of the Institute of Public Policy Executive Council at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan. He also spends some time each year as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National Singapore University.
He held numerous senior positions with the World Bank over a 25 year career, including Vice President of Latin America and the Caribbean, Director of China Operations, and Director of International Relations. He also served briefly as Pakistan’s Finance Minister, and earlier, Chief Economist of West Pakistan.
Mr. Burki was educated at Government College, Lahore from where he received M.Sc. in Physics; at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from where he received M.A. (Hons) in Economics; at Harvard University as a Mason Fellow from where he received M.P.A. and also studied for Ph.D. in Economics. Mr. Burki has authored several books and articles on development issues including Study of Chinese Communes (Harvard University Press, 1969); Pakistan Under Bhutto (Macmillan, 1990); Changing Perceptions, Altered Reality: Pakistan’s Economy Under Musharraf, 1999-2006 (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Analysis
Hassan Abbas
Hassan Abbas is Professor of International Security Studies at National Defense University, Washington DC. Previously, he was Quaid-i-Azam Professor at the South Asia Institute, Columbia University. Abbas is also a Senior Advisor at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, after having been a Research Fellow at the Center from 2005-2009. For 2009- 2010, he has been named as Bernard Schwartz fellow at the Asia Society headquarters in New York. Hassan also remains a visiting fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School (2002-03) and as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation (2003-2004). Previous to his academic career, Abbas served as a government official in the administrations of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1994-1995) and President Pervez Musharraf (1999-2000). As a member of the Police Service of Pakistan, he served in field supervisory positions in NWFP in late 1990s.
Abbas’ well acclaimed book Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War on Terror (M E Sharpe, 2004) remains on bestseller lists and was widely reviewed, including in New York Times, Boston Globe, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Hindu (India) and Dawn Pakistan).
Mushahid Hussain Syed
Mushahid Hussain Syed is the former Chairman of Senate Committee on Defense and Defense Production. Mushahid Hussain has a Master’s degree from the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University, Washington DC. He has also served as Federal Minister of Information from 1997 to 1999 during the Nawaz Sharif government. Mushahid was elected to the Senate of Pakistan in 2003 and was also the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is also Member of the Board of Governors of Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), a leading think tank.
