Mailing address
One Brattle Square 503
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Mailbox 134
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Website
Hassan Abbas
Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
Contact:
Telephone: 508-308-0576
Fax: 617-496-0606
Email: hassan_abbas@ksg.harvard.edu
Website: http://www.watandost.blogspot.com/
Experience
Dr. Hassan Abbas is a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom and International Security Program. He also received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. His research interests are Pakistan's nuclear program and the Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan controversy; religious extremism in South and Central Asia, and “Islam and the West."
He has an LL.M. in International Law from Nottingham University, UK, where he was a Britannia Chevening Scholar (1999). He also remained a visiting fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School (2002–2003) and later continued at the Program on Negotiation at HLS as a visiting scholar (2003–2004).
He is a former Pakistani government official who served in the administrations of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (1995–1996) and President Pervez Musharraf (1999–2000). His latest book, Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror (M.E. Sharpe) has been on bestseller lists in India and Pakistan and widely reviewed internationally including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Far Eastern Economic Review, The Hindu, Dawn, etc. He has also appeared as an analyst on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS, and as a political commentator on VOA and BBC. His forthcoming book is titled: "Sovereignty Belongs to Allah": Constitutionalism and Human Rights in the Islamic States. He runs Watandost, which is a blog on Pakistan-related affairs.
AP Photo
April 3, 2008
"Pakistan PM Has Good Credentials, Limited Authority"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Oxford Analytica
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"Gilani is leader of a coalition government with a strong mandate but facing difficult problems. It is also committed to policies that could cause turbulence, particularly reinstating judges deposed by President Pervez Musharraf. Gilani's position is further complicated by political circumstances, with the leaders of the dominant parties in the ruling coalition directing policy from outside parliament."
AP Photo
March 15, 2008
"Reform of Pakistan's Intelligence Services"
Op-Ed, The International News
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"The primary mission of intelligence services in a modern democratic state is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and pass on foreign intelligence to the government to assist it in making decisions related to national security. Their standard task also includes producing a range of studies that cover virtually any topic of interest to national-security policymakers. Depending on the resources, they use electronic means as well as human sources and, if necessary, undertake covert actions at the direction of the chief executive. A covert action is defined as an act to influence political, economic or military conditions abroad, while keeping in view some ethical considerations. Counter-intelligence operations mainly work to guard against espionage from foreign intelligence agencies in the country. They are also expected to effectively protect the secrets of its sources and methods. The role of intelligence services is to only report information and analysis and not to make policy recommendations."
AP Photo
March 4, 2008
"Police Reforms: Agenda of Change"
Op-Ed, The International News, (Pakistan)
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"...Besides leading to bad governance and a deplorable law and order situation in the country, police failures also have compounded the threat of religious extremism and terrorism. Poor data collection on crime and criminals and inadequate analytical capabilities hamper effective law enforcement. In many instances, banned militant organisations continued with their publications and in some cases wanted criminals, and terrorists changed their party affiliations (hurriedly joining groups that were not under government scrutiny after theirs were banned) and the police remained clueless. Here the police was also handicapped as many militant groups were producing "freedom fighters" for Kashmir and Afghanistan and had working relations with the intelligences services, and hence police officials were reluctant to go after some of these elements thinking that they might be the assets of some "other state institution." Things are reported to be progressively changing in this sphere lately, but the serious challenge remains...."
AP Photo
February 25, 2008
"Security and Intelligence"
Op-Ed, The International News, (Pakistan)
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"The Pakistani Army positively contributed towards the holding of free elections on Feb 18, but it cannot be expected to do the job of law enforcement endlessly. Dependence on the military for such tasks ultimately persuades its leadership to increase the army’s involvement in the political domain, and in the process that follows such thinking, Pakistan loses many years. Generals like Waheed Kakar and Jahangir Karamat are rare, and given some recent developments it seems that Pakistan is lucky to have another of their kind in the form of the new chief, Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. This golden opportunity should not be lost (like before) to nurture and groom civilian institutions to stand on their own feet."
AP Photo
February 19, 2008
"Pakistan Elections: A Clear Verdict"
Op-Ed, The Guardian, Comment is Free...
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"As for Musharraf, he is living in a fool's paradise if he thinks he is going to be a father figure to the next prime minister of Pakistan. The new government will be under tremendous public pressure to bring back the deposed judges, and that could sound a death knell for the Musharraf presidency. For the army, which is distancing itself from Musharraf already, institutional interests, saving prestige and influence, will be more important than rescuing a president who continues to shoot himself in the foot. The west in general — and Britain and the US in particular — must show patience while democratic forces settle; at least as much patience as they showed with military dictators. This is the very least that the people of Pakistan earned yesterday."
imranthetrekker
February 15, 2008
"Pakistan: Opposition Parties Are Poised to Win Poll"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Oxford Analytica
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"While there is a considerable risk that the elections will be rigged and that poor security will deter voting, pro-Musharraf parties will be swept from power. The PPP is expected to secure the most votes, raising the prospect of a grand coalition of parties united in opposition to the president. Stable government will depend on their ability to work together, as well as with Musharraf, for as long as he remains in power."
AP Photo
January 2008
"A Profile of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan"
Journal Article, CTC Sentinel, issue 2, volume 1
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"The organizational strength, military strategy and leadership quality of the Taliban in Pakistan's tribal territories has qualitatively improved during the last few years. At the time of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan in late 2001, allies and sympathizers of the Taliban in Pakistan were not identified as 'Taliban' themselves. That reality is now a distant memory. Today, Pakistan's indigenous Taliban are an effective fighting force and are engaging the Pakistani military on one side and NATO forces on the other."
AP Photo
December 31, 2007
"Musharraf Cannot Escape All Blame"
Op-Ed, The Australian
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
"...Pakistan has lost a desperately needed leader. With Pakistan's future in the balance, the West's help and support will be crucial, but that means recognising that Musharraf is not the only leader who can resolve Pakistan's many problems and manage the war on terror. On the contrary, by nurturing the present environment of instability and uncertainty, Musharraf himself must be regarded as one of Pakistan's biggest problems."
December 31, 2007
"The Elections Must Go Ahead"
Op-Ed, The Guardian, Comment is Free...
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
Without credible elections, restoration of the independent judiciary and effective curbs on the activities of the country's intelligence agencies in internal affairs, Pakistan cannot be rescued from a certain slide into more chaos. Pakistan's history is full of cover-ups and Bhutto's murder is proving to be no different.
December 17, 2007 12:34am EST
Analysis: End of Emergency Rule Unlikely to Resolve Pakistan's Problems
News
By Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program/Project on India and the Subcontinent
In a country where those who lose elections instinctively blame it on rigging . . . , and where divisions in the society are entrenched, these elections can open up a Pandora's box of political grievances, unmet expectations, ethnic rivalries and people's disenchantment with the system.
