Hassan Abbas has served as Professor of International Security Studies at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C., since August 2011. He has also been Program Director for South and Central Asia and Chair of the Department of Regional Studies at NDU. Previously, he served as the Distinguished Quaid i Azam chair professor at Columbia University in New York and a senior adviser at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Abbas holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; an LLM in International Law from Nottingham University, U.K., as a Britannia Chevening scholar; and an M.A. in Political Science from Punjab University, Pakistan. He also received fellowships at Harvard Law School, Asia Society in New York, and New America in Washington, D.C.. He regularly appears as an analyst on international media and writes pieces for various leading international newspapers and academic publications.
His latest book is Pakistan’s Nuclear Bomb: A Story of Defiance, Deterrence and Deviance (Oxford University Press, 2018). His earlier books include the well acclaimed The Taliban Revival: Violence & Extremism on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier (Yale University Press, 2015) and Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War On Terror (M.E.Sharpe & Routledge, 2005).
The unprecedented global challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is testing the resources and capabilities of government services. Law enforcement personnel, who are at the forefront in the fight against the disease and are among those at a high risk of becoming infected, have been particularly affected.
Newlines Institute's Kamran Bokhari sat down with Hassan Abbas, NESA distinguished professor and Newlines Institute Senior Fellow to discuss the state of negotiations for peace in Afghanistan.
A regional settlement, while complicated, is absolutely required if Afghanistan is to ever fully taste security and stability. An intra-Afghan settlement will be contingent on this regional component.
Should U.S. policy makers and strategists be concerned about the transition and succession of religious leadership?
