Lahore, July 12, 2023 (PPI-OT): Dr Rabia Akhtar (Director, Centre for Security, Strategy, and Policy Research (CSSPR)) is a Pakistani foreign policy expert who is representing the country and The University of Lahore in prestigious fora around the world, and she is befittingly highlighting Pakistan’s strategic narrative. Recently, Dr Akhtar delivered a lecture, as part of the teaching faculty, to the students of the NATO Defence College in Italy and also appeared as one of the lecturers at the Nuclear History Boot Camp held in Rome.
Pakistan’s Strategic Priorities
While addressing 75 students from 32 countries, enrolled in the Senior Course at the NATO Defence College in Rome, Italy, Dr Akhtar said that Pakistan wants to present itself as a country that is willing and ready to become a conduit of regional connectivity and a melting pot for regional and global economic interests. This was her fifth lecture at the College since becoming part of its teaching faculty in 2020. She discussed Pakistan’s new approach to national security as articulated in the country’s National Security Policy, arguing that the health of its economy lies at the heart of its citizen-centric security paradigm.
She added that the life and dignity of each citizen should be at the centre of Pakistan’s evolving security framework. “Pakistan’s bid to enhance economic security is contingent upon regional stability, and therefore chaos and uncertainty in Afghanistan and Central Asia will be deleterious. The international community, therefore, needs to engage with Pakistan,” she said.
Speaking about the importance of Pakistan’s relation with China, Dr Akhtar said strong Sino-Pak relations will only be good news for regional connectivity and that the country wants to strike a balance in its ties with the U.S. and China. “Pakistan wants to establish stronger relations with countries like Turkiye, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. The recent Saudi-Iran rapprochement, enabled by China, will open more economic and strategic opportunities for Pakistan,” she added. She said that Pakistan is committed to reinvigorating its ties with Russia and the Central Asian Republics (CARs) to meet the many energy-related challenges it faces today. She delved into Pakistan’s policies towards India and Afghanistan, emphasising that they are focused on protecting the country from threats on its eastern and western borders. She said that there is a need to change the manual on dealing with India. Concerning Afghanistan, she said Pakistan must communicate its red lines to the Afghan Taliban and seek to find a regional way forward in dealing with the said group.
Dr Akhtar stressed the need for robust diplomacy, lobbying, and narrative-building on the part of Pakistan. She ended her talk by saying that political awareness among the burgeoning youthful population can be instrumental in the development of the country. The session was followed by an extensive question-and-answer session, in which officers raised concerns about the country’s current trajectory and future.
Pakistan’s Nuclear Evolution
Dr Akhtar, as a faculty member, presented on Pakistan’s nuclear journey during a Boot Camp that was organised by the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP). It aimed at connecting budding students and scholars of nuclear history with some of the leading experts in the said field. The idea was to train a crop of scholars in archival research that not only had a bearing on the historiography of nuclear weapons but also on future strategic policies and doctrines. Dr. Akhtar joined scholars from around the world to apprise a select group of boot campers of the evolution of nuclear strategy, its implications, and the way forward.
In her talk entitled ‘Pakistan’s Nuclear Journey: Challenges, Sanctions, and Defiance’, Dr Akhtar told students how gritty Pakistani policymakers, scientists, and diplomats were when it came to delivering what the country needed: a nuclear deterrent. She explained the security predicament that Pakistan found itself in, which compelled it to go nuclear. She asserted that once Pakistan decided to bare its teeth, there was no looking back.
She emphasized that defying sanctions, circumventing the U.S. system, and delivering in Afghanistan were no mean feats. Apropos of that, Dr Akhtar talked about her book ‘The Blind Eye’, which academically critiques U.S. non-proliferation policy, arguing that it was relegated in favour of geopolitical goals. In the process, she spoke to the importance of cogently telling Pakistan’s nuclear story through primary, archival, and data-driven research, adding that openness on the part of Pakistan will help young and upcoming scholars to contribute positively to the country’s intellectual capital.
At the end, Dr Akhtar replied to a host of thought-provoking questions raised by students of the Boot Camp and, on behalf of CSSPR, she committed to carrying on working with NPIHP on several nuclear history-related projects.
For more information, contact:
The University of Lahore
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Website: www.uol.edu.pk