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CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSNo 5 (b) 2017

RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International Seminar: Peace, Growth and Empowerment:

Promoting Regional Connectivity

This report is based on the joint conference: Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity that were held in Islamabad November-December 2016. The conference and the report have been developed in a cooperation between NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) and the Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) in the frame of the Danish Peace and Stabilization Fund. The report contains edited and reflected perspectives, analysis, and recommendations presented at the conference. A special focus at the conference was that a broader focus should be given to economic and trade aspects in order to identify measures and paths to initiate a process of peace, growth, and empowerment in the region of South Asia. Several innovative initiatives combining cooperation on security and economic cooperation is included in the content as observations or recommendations with the objective of reaching regional political decision makers, institutions, private companies, and researchers from the region as well as scholars from the international community in general with interest in the security and economic development of the region.

Promoting Security Cooperation andEconomic Connectivity in South Asia

Approaching Regional Coherence R

DD

C & N

UST Conference Proceedings

By David Vestenskov, Ali Shah, Atia Ali Kazmi & Christian Høj Hansen

ApproachingRegional

Coherence

Conference Proceedings No 5 (b) 2017 RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International Seminar:

Peace, Growth and Empowerment:Promoting Regional Connectivity

APPROACHING REGIONAL COHERENCEPromoting Security Cooperation andEconomic Connectivity in South Asia

David Vestenskov, ConsultantInstitute for Military Operations, RDDC

Ali Shah, Head of Research and Analysis,Global Think Tank Network, NUST

Atia Ali Kazmi, Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst,Global Think Tank Network, NUST

Christian Høj Hansen, Research Assistant,Institute for Military Operations, RDDC

Royal Danish Defence College2017

Conference Proceedings No 5 (b) 2017 RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International Seminar:Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity

APPROACHING REGIONAL COHERENCE Promoting Security Cooperation and Economic Connectivity in South Asia

David Vestenskov, Consultant, Institute for Military Operations, RDDCAli Shah, Head of Research and Analysis, Global Think Tank Network, NUST Atia Ali Kazmi, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Global Think Tank Network, NUSTChristian Høj Hansen, Research Assistant, Institute for Military Operations, RDDC

© Royal Danish Defence College

All rights reserved. Mechanical, photographic or other reproduction or photo-copying from this book or parts thereof is only allowed according to agreements between The Danish Defence and CopyDan. Any other use without written consent from the Royal Danish Defence College is illegal according to Danish law on intellectual property right. Excepted are short extracts for reviews in newspapers or the like.

The v iews presented by t he s peakers i n t he report a re p ersonal and d o n ot necessarily reflect the views of RDDC and GTTN.

Copenhagen, June 2017

Royal Danish Defence CollegeRyvangs Allé 1DK-2100 CopenhagenPhone: +45 728 17000Editor in Chief: Jens Ringsmose, Director

Institute for Military Operations, RDDCPrinted in Denmark by Rosendahls A/SCover photo: Layout: Royal Danish Defence CollegeISBN: 978-87-7147-192-2Number printed: 300

This publication can be downloaded for free from www.rddc.dk

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Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity

Authors ................................................................................................................................. 7

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 8

Executive Summary ...........................................................................................................10Session 1 - UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law .........................10Session 2 – Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment .........................11Workshop 1 - Countering Militancy, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Groups in Afghanistan ....................................................................................................................12Workshop 2 - Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan ...................................................................................12Workshop 3 - Forecasting the Future: Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan ..................................13Workshop 4 - Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan .............................................................13Workshop 5 - Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region..............................14

Inaugural Session ..............................................................................................................15Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President GTTN ............15Opening Address by Lieutenant General (R) Naweed Zaman HI (M), Rector NUST and Co-Chair GTTN ..................................................................................16Opening Address by H.E. Ole Thonke, Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan ...........20Keynote Address by General Ehsan Ul Haq (R), NI (M), Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) ......................................................................22

Plenary Session 1: UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law ...............25Summary ........................................................................................................................25Developing a Social Discourse on Peacebuilding in the Region by General (R) Daya Ratnayake, Former Commander of the Army, Sri Lanka ...............26International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as a Preventive Force in Capacity Building by Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC ....................................................28The Contours of UN Peacekeeping: Vision for Tomorrow by Brigadier (R) Mujahid Alam, Senior Fellow GTTN, Principal, Lawrence College, Murree, & Former Advisor, UN Peacekeeping Department ......................................................31Interactive Session 1 .....................................................................................................33Plenary Session 1 – RDDC Comments ........................................................................34Plenary Session 1 – Comments of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) ...........35

Plenary Session 2: Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment ................36Summary ........................................................................................................................36Regional Organizations for Peace and Development by Mr. Owais Ghani, Senior Fellow GTTN & Former Governor Balochistan & KP ........................................ 37

Table of Content

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RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International Seminar

Seeking Common Ground for Social Inclusion by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, Chairperson, Rahnuma for Social Development .........................................................40Participatory Development and Regional Transformation by Mr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chairman Gilani Research Foundation ........................................................................42Interactive session 2 ..................................................................................................... 47Plenary Session 2 – RDDC Comments ....................................................................... 47Plenary Session 2 – Comments of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) ...........48

Workshop 1: Countering Militancy, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Groups in Afghanistan ........................................................................................................................49

Summary ........................................................................................................................50Brigadier Mahmood Shah (R) – The Spillovers of the Afghan Situation: Challenges and Opportunities ......................................................................................50Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain, HoD Government & Public Policy, NUST - The Role of Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Troika for Establishing Regional Stability ......................... 51Ms. Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies - Understanding in order to Counter Religious Justifications of, and Mobilization to Violence ................................................................................................ 51Air Commodore Ghulam Mujaddid (R), Acting Dean, Faculty of Aero Space Sciences & Strategic Studies, Air University - Contemporary Challenges for Regional Peace and the Way Forward .....................................................................................................52Interactive session.........................................................................................................53

Workshop 2 – Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan .......................................................................................55

Summary ........................................................................................................................56Brigadier (R) Agha Ahmad Gul, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN – Effective Regional Cross Border Administration – Policy Imperatives .....................................................56Major General (R) Ziauddin Najam, Rector NUML & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN – Proposal for Present & Future of Regional Border Management ............................57Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC – International Humanitarian Law in Armed Forces .............................................................................................................58Mr. Hamid Ali Khan, Director General Counter Terrorism SASSI - Political Dimensions of Policing the Borders: Optimizing the Opportunities ............59Interactive Session ........................................................................................................60

Workshop 3 - Forecasting the Future – Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan ........................................................61

Summary ........................................................................................................................62Mr. Sayed Mahdi Munadi, Head of Research, CSS, MFA – The Prospects of B2B (Business to Business) Regional Cooperation: The Case of Afghanistan .................62Major General Muhammed Afzal, HI (M), DG FWO – Bridging the Divide: Identifying Key Sectors for Development in Afghanistan ............................................63Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar, Senior Advisor to Ministry of Education – TAPI Pipeline: A Recipe for Peace or Instability? ................................................................................63

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Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani, CEO Reenergia Enhar, Pakistan – Business Strategy in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries ..........................................................64Interactive Session .......................................................................................................65

Workshop 4 - Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan ................................................................66

Summary ........................................................................................................................66Dr. Shahid Mahmud, CEO Interactive Group & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN- Replicating the Global Culture of Successful Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan ......67Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Principal S3H & Resident Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN - Maximizing the Potential of Foreign Investments in Pakistan for a Regional Win-Win........................................................................................................68Mr. Tom Børsen, Associate Professor Aalborg University, Denmark - CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in Pakistan ..............................................................69Mr. Amjad Naveed, Postdoc at University of Southern Denmark - Regional Economic Growth, Knowledge Spillovers, Labor Productivity, Entrepreneurship and Innovation .................................................................................69Interactive session.........................................................................................................70

Workshop 5 – Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region ..............................72Summary ........................................................................................................................72Dr. Uxi Mufti, Social Scientist & Cultural Consultant - The Human Element of Regional Growth: People-Centric Policies and their Dividends ..................................73Mr. Karman Lashari, Director General at Walled City of Lahore Authority - Tracking Historic Traits of Regional Cooperation for a Better Tomorrow................................... 74Mr. Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark - Strengthening Strategic Relations through Government Company Relations and Development .....................................................................................75Interactive Session .......................................................................................................75

Closing Session ................................................................................................................. 76Introductory Remarks by Ambassador Riaz Khokhar, Senior Fellow GTTN & Former Foreign Secretary, GTTN ................................................................................... 76Summary of Roundtable 1 by Lieutenant General (R) Masood Aslam, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN .............................................................................................77Summary of Roundtable 2 by Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Former Director General Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan ............................................78Summary of Roundtable 3, by Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Chairperson of KASB Corporation, Pakistan ............................................................79Summary of Roundtable 4 by Dr. Shahid Mahmud, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Chairman, Interactive Group, Pakistan ........................................................................80Summary of Roundtable 5 by Dr. Liselotte Odgaard, Associate Professor, RDDC, Copenhagen ...................................................................................................................81Closing Remarks by Colonel Nicolas Teodors Viecherts, Head of RDDC Delegation ...82

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Closing Remarks by Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President GTTN ..................83Vote of Thanks by Lieutenant General (R) Naweed Zaman, Rector NUST & Co-Chair GTTN ................................................................................................................85

Chairs and Speakers – In order of appearance ..............................................................86

Conference Program .........................................................................................................94

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Authors

Mr. David Vestenskov is a consultant at the Royal Danish Defence College and project coordinator on the Danish peace and stabilization programme for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He holds a MA in History and Rhetoric from University of Copenhagen. His analytical work and research have primarily focused on security developments in Central Asia and the Middle East, on which he also has published several articles and books. His current work comprises research, international networking, and project implementation in the areas of international security issues, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, as well as regional peace building.

Mr. Ali Shah heads research and analysis at the NUST Global Think Tank Network. He has worked at lead research positions in various knowledge-based organizations since 2002. He holds an MA in English and another MA in Development Studies from the University of Manchester, the UK. His current areas of research are: IR theory and geopolitics; state-society relations and social change; China Studies including Belt and Road Initiative: Pakistan Studies; political and policy implications of philosophy, and Foresight and Futures Studies. He periodically commentates on national and international issues in the national electronic media. A prolific analyst, he has published various working papers, research articles and briefs, edited books, and written for the press.

Ms. Atia Ali Kazmi is Senior Research and Policy Analyst at NUST Global Think Tank Network. She has served a distinguished career in academia, with more than a decade long teaching, research, and administrative experience at esteemed institutions. She has organized and participated in various international and local conferences. A frequent media commentator, she has authored various reports, policy papers, monographs, and book chapters. She holds an MPhil in Government and Public Policy from the National Defence University and is a PhD Scholar in American Studies at the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Her areas of interest include international relations, regional integration, Sino-American relations, geostrategy and politics, public policy, conflict resolution, and nonproliferation.

Mr. Christian Høj Hansen is a research assistant at the Royal Danish Defence College, where he has assisted in development, coordination and execution of several projects in the Danish peace and stabilization programme for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He holds a B.A. in History and Cultural Encounters from Roskilde University Center (RUC) where his specialized on how nations are constructed and how this affects the subsequent historical development of the nation. His area of research have mainly focused on history and security dynamics in Central Asia and the Middle East with a specific focus on Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

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Introduction

The long conflict-ridden region of South Asia continues to face ever-growing challenges, especially so the countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consequently, regional as well as international actors have been forced to adapt and develop new strategies to face the rising security threat. In relation to this, the Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) has organized several conferences, which have tried to improve and resolve these growing challenges by initiating steps that can promote collaboration between military institutions in the region. Based on the findings from these conferences, a broader focus should be given to economic and trade aspects because economics and trade have the ability to increase peace, growth, and empowerment in the region, which would be beneficial for regional actors. For this reason, a joint conference between NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) and RDDC titled “Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity” took place in Islamabad at the end of November 2016. This Track II level conference was the first joint conference between NUST and RDDC. The primary objective for this conference was to enhance networking and build trust amongst the South Asian regional states and neighboring regions in order to promote cooperation on security, research, and trade. The two-day conference was held to launch this partnership for broadening and deepening academic cooperation and exchange between NUST and RDDC as well as proffer key inputs for Afghan, Danish, and Pakistani policies for regional development and integration. Scholars or diplomats who have a profound knowledge on topics related to security, military, or economic aspects were invited in order to contribute with ideas on countering present challenges and identifying common ground for progress on regional stability.

The joint conference between NUST and RDDC is part of the larger framework provided by the Peace & Stabilization Fund (PSF), and while this specific project plays an important role for continuity, it also serves as an innovative initiative to combine cooperation on security with economic cooperation. The PSF, located at the Danish Ministry of Defence and the Joint Danish Defence Command, provided the financial resources for the conference and therefore RDDC and NUST would like to extend a special vote of thanks to the PSF. Likewise, a special vote of thanks should be given to the Danish Embassy in Kabul and Islamabad for their assistance in coordinating logistics and providing advice in connection with bringing the delegation from Afghanistan and representatives from Pakistan and beyond to the conference. Furthermore, NUST and RDDC would like to thank the renowned intellectuals, academics, scholars, policy makers, statesmen, diplomats, defense personnel, researchers, and students, who attended and contributed to the conference. NUST would like to direct a special

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thanks to Umar Irfan Akhtar, Jawwad Khalid, Sara Mohsin, and Rehan Zafar and his team in their assistance in transcription. Finally, the assistance of Andreas Høj Fierro during the conference as well as the assistance by him and Hüseyin Yücel in writing the report at hand, is highly appreciated by the authors as well as by RDDC in general.

This report is the product of a close cooperation between NUST and RDDC. However, in order to speed up the writing process, NUST and RDDC have split up the writing of the report, which means that NUST has worked out the part of the report, which describes the Opening and Closing sessions, along with Plenary Sessions 1 and 2, which took place during the first day of the conference. This part is abbreviated renderings of the various speeches and presentations from these sessions. In the second part of the report, RDDC has created five summaries, which describe the main points and key recommendations from each of the presentations made during the five-workshop sessions, which took place at the second day of the conference. NUST and RDDC have crosschecked each other’s drafts, and notes from both institutions have afterwards been implemented to the report. The subsequent chapters in this report are organized in accordance with the conference program.

The seminar succeeded in bringing forth perceptions of immediate obstacles to cooperation, along with an identification of common ground for moving forward, which should receive greater political attention in the near future. Nonetheless, it is important to stress that this was the first joint conference between NUST and RDDC, and therefore some challenges arose during the conference, which mostly affected the plenary sessions during the first day in which tensions were high in relation to the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. Moreover, it is also important to stress that this conference had a very wide frame, which greatly affected the various workshop sessions, because so many different perspectives were presented, which is largely due to the fact that it can be difficult to combine aspects such as security, culture, trade and economy together in the same conference. However, these barriers should not be seen as an impediment, but instead as part of the process in which different scholars and experts can exchange knowledge. Thus, the following report summarizes this based on the research presented during the seminar and subsequent reflections by the speakers as well as the editor.

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Executive Summary

The following section will summarize the key findings and recommendations made du-ring the various sessions and workshops at the conference. Initially a short description of the key findings from plenary sessions 1 & 2 are presented followed by key policy recommendations derived from the five workshops/roundtables in the shape of bullet points in order to provide readers with knowledge on specific tools or approaches that can be applied to improve peace, growth, and empowerment by promoting regional connectivity. It is the intention of NUST and RDDC that scholars, experts, diplomats, military personnel, and people with an interest in progressive development for the region can use this executive summary to obtain an overview of the identified areas of political common ground. Further knowledge on the background of findings and recommendations as well as in-depth information on the joint NUST-RDDC project and conference is elaborated in the subsequent chapters of this report.

Session 1 - UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian LawSession 1 was framed by the objective of discussing UN peacekeeping and the imple-mentation of International Humanitarian Law. The session was composed of speakers from Sri Lanka, Denmark, and Pakistan with profound knowledge related to the ses-sion’s objective. The key points derived from the session included that peacekeeping and international humanitarian law (IHL) remain neglected and absent from policy development in relation to ways and means for promoting growth and regional con-nectivity. The creation of a model of social discourse by focusing on creating a social movement that can forge a South Asian identity was recommended. This model would imply an aim of identifying collective solutions to common issues in order to counter divisive political interests. In that context, IHL compliance is one of the fundamental pillars on which post-conflict reconstruction can be established and applied as a tool of connectivity between former enemies. Thus, respect for and compliance with IHL must be promoted to being a priority in military training, and states must construc-tively and willingly participate in the international efforts to promote a compliance mechanism. However, this must not only be adopted by states but also in capacity building within UN Peacekeeping training prior to missions. A global network of operational support will therefore need to be emplaced with the cooperation of other international and regional organizations, governments, private sectors, civil soci-ety, and local communities. Enhanced international coordination on planning and monitoring mechanisms on IHL will have to be designed to achieve effective future peacekeeping that maintains cooperation and consensus as the foundational values of UN Peacekeeping in the 21st century.

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Session 2 – Regional Reconciliation through Social EmpowermentSession 2 was framed in order to address how regional reconciliation can be initiated through promoting social empowerment. The session was composed of speakers from different organizations in Pakistan, and the speakers highlighted several interesting perspectives that can support the task of reconciliation through social empowerment. One of the key recommendations stated that the leading role of regional NGOs is essential and that their position must not be undermined, as these organizations can facilitate nations in reaching consensus on issues of collective peace, empowerment, and growth. Another key finding emphasized the development of regional development guidelines, which can encourage stakeholders toward enhanced cooperation through an orchestrated framework in relation to implementation of sustainable development goals.

On the topic of social inclusion in South Asia, various segments of society calls for attention to issues relating to elders, women, youth, families, disabled, minorities, displaced people, and refugees. In generic terms, regional common ground could be the structuring of social protection systems to reduce vulnerability across life cycles and ensure cumulative benefit across generations. In that context, social inclusion should concern the following aspects: the role of local governments, rationalization of the mechanism of SAARC, women as peacebuilders, and inclusive sustainable development goals (SDG).

An important point also made in this session was directed at the necessity for creating opportunities that make life worth living, as the process toward peace depends upon this. For this reason, regional actors must confront poverty and diseases; and the drive for stronger regional cooperation can very well be based on economic considerations in accordance with the positive effect that cooperation definitely will have on all parties. As of now, this is prevented by separate civilizational identifications and seems to continue to overrule the benefits of cooperation. Initiatives on economic benefits, security, and political compulsions have sometimes been conducive to regional unity but have not been sufficient. The regional actors should therefore initiate a political concept that includes transcultural interface, inclusive debates, resilient culture of networking, and building trust through intellectual and academic discourse in order to identify common grounds for regional reconciliation, sustainable development, and stability. A new narrative or political agenda must therefore prioritize and focus on outcomes through solutions in the realms of security, economy, and cultural diffusion.

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Workshop 1 - Countering Militancy, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Groups in Afghanistan• In order to improve the possibilities for promoting regional connectivity, it is

important that Afghanistan develop toward being a self-reliant country rather than a country relying heavily on foreign aid and influence.

• Regional actors should enchase a new paradigm and apply a more self-critical view. Furthermore, each state should give priority to an initial security focus on initiatives that can be conducted domestically to counter the threats of the region. The prerequisite for such a change is that the regional states in general cease the blame game that now dominates all communication on security.

• Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran should prioritize regionalism, as parts of their populations share significant similarities. Cooperation with such a focus serving as the common denominator could work as a driver to defuse the current tensions and would increase focus on socio-economic development.

Workshop 2 - Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan• Afghanistan and Pakistan should adjust the Durand Line so that the local villages

on their own can choose to which country they want to belong. This would make it easier for both countries to control the border and thereby the border areas, where many insurgents are operating.

• Increase the educational level of border management officers and staff in relation to customs, emigration, IHL, and law enforcement. Improved educational levels could create a platform for bilateral investigation teams that can help mitigate possibilities of conflict escalation and recurrence prior to conflicts.

• Create a sufficient border system by establishing fences and more checkpoints, as this would make border control more capable of upholding the rule of law in the border areas.

• Interference from non-regional actors should be limited as it is the regional sta-tes that possess insight on how local customs and values work, and the regional actors will therefore have a better chance of promoting stability and peace in a long-term perspective.

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Workshop 3 - Forecasting the Future: Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan• Sectors of energy, human resource development, water, infrastructure, and agri-

culture were identified as key branches to enhance Business-to-Business (B2B) cooperation between small businesses and larger companies in the regional states.

• Afghanistan needs to address the country’s main obstacles concerning the lack of security, bad governance, meltdown in employment, lack of skilled labor, and weak infrastructure, if an environment for economic growth and investments is to be nurtured. The government in Afghanistan should therefore expedite legis-lative work that can exploit its central geographical position in relation to Afghan exports and as a regional transport hub.

• Business possibilities could be improved by connecting people and goods so that people can see business opportunities and business transactions emerge. However, improving the prospect for businesses internally requires that Afghanistan will be able to give priority to regional cooperation and bilateral agreements in relation to the commercial sector. This also requires that all states in the region accept Afghanistan’s right to engage bilaterally with any country it chooses.

Workshop 4 - Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan• Pakistan could increase its productivity growth by a very high percentage through

knowledge and labor productivity spillovers. Pakistan should rethink its bilateral trade relations and focus on peaceful solutions to its current conflicts with its neighbors.

• Ten key factors have the ability to improve foreign investments in the region; economic strength, economic policy, law and order situation, political stability, infrastructure, local business environment, quality of bureaucracy, quality of labor force, quality of life, and welcoming attitude.

• The following five values can improve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Pakistan: value based approach (values are formulated and companies work to fulfill them), stakeholder model (involves dialogue and communication with the stakeholders), shared values approach, philanthropic approach, and integrative model (the four previous values combined and integrated).

• Economic projects in the region should be related to energy, trade, infrastruc-ture, industrial, and knowledge corridors, which should be provided with good

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legislative frameworks and a welcoming (in relation to investments) environment. Examples of such projects are the CPEC agreement, CASA 1000 project, TAPI gas pipeline, and the IPI gas pipeline, which should serve as frontrunner projects to be learned from but also as a source of inspiration.

Workshop 5 - Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region• The regional actors should strengthen the cultural links between the local society

and the nation as no country can survive without a cultural awareness and diffusion, and every country should therefore have a desire for making a platform for unity between different cultures in the region.

• In order to achieve the aim of cultural diffusion and collaboration it is essential to implement tolerance, appreciate cultural dividends, and promote respect between nations when policies are developed. The political objective for each state in this policy development should be to establish equality between different cultures and to appreciate and indeed exploit cultural diversity in economic cooperation in the region.

• Cultural diffusion is embedded in people-to-people interaction and contact, and it is therefore important that this aspect is promoted and protected. This means that each state should encourage travelling and interaction with other states in the region to a far greater extent as this would create better awareness and understanding of how the region’s different cultures could be applied to create economic growth.

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Inaugural Session

Inaugural Session. From the left: Mr. Amer Hashmi, Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman, General Ehsan Ul Haq, H.E. Ole Thonke, and Col. Nicolas Teodors Viecherts. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Welcoming Remarks by Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President GTTNIt is a matter of pleasure for me to note that the first Joint International Seminar by the Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) and NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) has been organized on the very important theme of promoting regional connectivity through efforts aimed at building peace, stimulating growth, and fostering empowerment in the region. There is no doubt that in the second decade of the 21st century, nations will not be able to develop individually if sizable and viable contributions are not made by each state in a region toward greater regional integration and development.

South Asia, together with the surrounding regions of Central Asia, East Asia, and West Asia, forms the biggest population cluster in the world. It is my belief that mankind’s future in the 21st century will be determined on the basis of the nature and patterns of relations that prevail in this mega-region. If said mega-region is peaceful, then the world will be peaceful. If it is in turmoil, the whole world will feel the tremors of its unrest and turbulence.

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Today, all the cognitive and practical energies of the world should be focused on peace-fully resolving conflicts, crises, and disputes – whether natural or manmade. The need of the hour is to keenly understand the genealogies of the multi-level problems of the region, as well as provide broadly acceptable solutions to these problems. Further, this deliberative process has to come up from within the region with the consensus of the denizens of the regions that comprise the states, societies, and peoples. We must be aware of the internal and external risks and threats to this participatory exploratory process aimed at finding acceptable solutions.

The era of exclusion has waned around the world. The world of today and tomorrow will be a world based on and seeking strength from inclusiveness practiced at all levels of collective engagement. In order for this collective engagement related to common problems to be practiced smoothly, methodologies of both formal and informal negotiations and discussions must increasingly incorporate the valuable heuristics of unbiased problem solving.

I am excited by the presence of scholars, experts, and practitioners across a range of development- and peace-related disciplines and domains from Afghanistan, Denmark, and Pakistan. This multidisciplinary Eurasian expertise would enrich the sessions and roundtables/workshops of the Joint International Seminar and lead to win-win solutions for not only regional but also global development and growth. In the end, I should like to point out that peace today and tomorrow would be guaranteed only with the jettisoning of biases and prejudices that today influence the actions of billions around the world against others, whether these ‘others’ are classified as individuals from a different background, social or ethnic groups, societies, states, nations, and cultures.

Opening Address by Lieutenant General (R) Naweed Zaman HI (M), Rector NUST and Co-Chair GTTNI feel privileged, indeed, to address today’s distinguished gathering. The Royal Danish Defence College and the NUST Global Think Tank Network deserve praise for organizing their first Joint International Seminar on the important topic of “Peace, Growth, and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity”. Special thanks goes to all the eminent speakers and guests who took time out of their busy schedules and joined us today. The Joint Seminar has come at an opportune time, especially as the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative and, its flagship node, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are being developed rapidly and steadily. Regional connectivity is aimed at fostering regional networks and promoting and speeding up the movement and flow of goods, services, people, ideas and knowledge, efficiently and effectively using multiple means in a sustainable and innovative manner. These

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means consist of physical, social, cultural, and intellectual infrastructures needed for these multiple flows.

Pakistan’s geographical position enables it to become a true and expanded hub of regional connectivity, growth, and development, working together in all directions in the mega-region comprising Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, the Middle East, and Western China. This special geographical position is now poised to become a general boon for its neighbors through CPEC development and consolidation. This means that states in the region, such as major geopolitical players and agents, will have to ensure mutual peace in order for regional connectivity to act as a driver for positive transformation of the region. States in the region will have to realize and comprehend, once and for all, that unilateralism is not an option. Without peace and empowerment in the region, growth will fail to benefit the people, resulting in scant trickle-down effects for the masses in the region.

Unfortunately, the state of regional connectivity in South Asia remains modest at best. Trade within South Asia currently stands at approximately USD 45bn only. In contrast, trade within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is around USD 545bn. Low levels of trust between India and Pakistan, mainly as a result of Indian intransigence and belligerent policy, combined with other factors like poverty, terrorism, the unresolved issue of Kashmir, decades-long turmoil in Afghanistan, and until recently, the isolation of Iran, have traditionally led to sub-optimal regional connectivity in the region.

Against this background, public and private sectors in different countries in the region will have to take the lead and enter into multiple partnerships at national and regional levels to develop the potential for growth optimally. This would mean institutionalization of pro-poor economic, financial, and social initiatives. It signifies business-to-business, government-to-government, people-to-people, and public-private partnerships, willingly created and fostered for multidimensional regional connectivity.

Given a peaceful environment, there is a huge potential for intra-regional trade to increase through well-calculated, judicious, and well-considered reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers, through stimulating intra-regional and interregional public and private investment, creating efficient border crossings, and improvements in logistics, air travel, land-based transport, and maritime transport. It is not only trade in commodities and services that needs to be encouraged but also the exchange of cultural commodities that celebrate the diverse cultures of the region.

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It is noteworthy that South Asia is a fast urbanizing region with Pakistan experiencing the fastest urbanization (39 percent). Urbanization opens up new avenues for regional cooperation that could provide powerful stimulus for regional connectivity. Cities are going to play a major part in global growth of the future. They will need world-class physical, social, and technological infrastructures in order to serve as national, regional, and global engines of growth and development. For maximum gains, they will need to be connected with other major urban hubs of growth in the region enjoying broad-based cross-border connectivity. Population growth, urbanization, and industrialization in the region mean that there will be a massive demand for energy and power generation. This demand will hardly be met through exclusively domestic resources. Therefore, increased demand for energy will call for regional measures and initiatives, including bilateral, trilateral and multilateral cooperation for developing and creating long-term and sustainable energy solutions to the energy deficit of the region.

This would mean promoting increased energy trade and also the creation of a massive regional energy grid tapping the regional energy resources efficiently and optimally. In this regard, Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and China can collectively create, within the ambit of CPEC, a long-term energy trade infrastructure for maximum regional prosperity and growth. Climate change is yet another area expected to have serious consequences for South Asian economies, which are still mainly agricultural. Better regional connectivity will help mitigate some of the effects of climate change and impact from natural disasters in terms of better and coordinated regional disaster relief and mitigation efforts. Collective responses based on cooperation could help deal with unforeseen natural and manmade crises.

Better intellectual connectivity can be established leveraging the extraordinary advances in the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). There is a lot of scope for undertaking Higher Education collaboration in the region. Talent in the region should be connected in order to address multiple challenges and opportunities existing in the region. This can be done from the platform of universities and think tanks by creating multidisciplinary regional research clusters, tasked with studying key regional challenges like poverty, climate change, skewed development, security (including aspects like human and food security), peace and conflict, energy trade and logistics, infrastructure planning, etc.

Universities can promote greater Triple-Helix cooperation with government and industry by creating innovation-based initiatives like science parks and technology incubators. NUST proudly claims to preside over a well-developed technology incubator in Pakistan, which has been nurturing start-ups and helping them grow into viable businesses since 2009.

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In addition, NUST has played a major role in the promotion of regional and global knowledge-based connectivity and collaboration. For example, in addition to the present RDDC-NUST Joint International Seminar, NUST has hosted the Beijing Forum in Islamabad this May. It was the first overseas chapter of the prestigious Beijing Forum of China, which has been held at Peking University since 2004. The event witnessed the participation of key public officials, policymakers, senior civil and military officials, corporate leaders, experts, scholars, researchers, and students from China, Pakistan, Russia, and Canada who deliberated on and discussed various aspects and advantages of China-Pakistan cooperation and friendship for bilateral, regional, and global progress, focusing on the OBOR initiative and CPEC.

In sum, regional connectivity in the region requires a concerted approach that allows all countries to formulate a framework that enables them to harness their manifold elements of national power and collectively chalk out holistic solutions for common problems. I hope the current Joint Seminar will help in creating broader and deeper understanding about regional collaboration and connectivity.

Inaugural Session. Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman (R), HI (M), Rector at NUST during his opening speech (NUST Archive, 2016).

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Opening Address by H.E. Ole Thonke, Ambassador of Denmark to PakistanI feel very happy to be here; to be welcomed to this joint international conference between NUST and the Royal Danish Defence College under the theme of Peace, Growth, and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity. It is an appropriate occasion for me to say few words about neighbors. It is a well-known but oft-ignored fact that our neighbors can sometimes alternate between being very pleasant and very challenging. This checkered nature of neighborliness is something that we cannot escape. It is interesting that we think in these terms about our neighbors, but every time we do so, we think that we somehow are exempt from this ambivalence and that while it is legitimate for us to think of our neighbors in these mixed terms, it is not reasonable for our neighbors to think of us in this manner. When we find our neighbors challenging and causing commotion and disturbance, despite this turbulence being limited to their own sphere without causing us trouble directly, we choose to isolate ourselves from our neighbors in the calm and peace of our own hearth and home. However, having closed the door on the noise and ruckus coming from the house next-door does not change the fact that our neighbors will continue being our neighbors, without us having decisive influence in their choices.

Actually, one could scale up this curious fact of neighborliness to the level of relations between countries and states. Denmark, like many countries around the world, has had problems with its neighbors. Our history, like the history of any country, tells the tales of wars, troubles, conquests, victories, losses, and rapprochement with neighbors. Through all this, Denmark came to be much smaller in terms of territory than when it started out. We collectively realized that perhaps it was not the wisest way of going about being a country, being at loggerheads with our neighbors. Perhaps, this was the understanding that dawned on our neighbors, too. Therefore, we decided to change the way we fought with our neighbors.

Nowadays, we fight them only on the football pitch; otherwise, we cooperate and trade with them. The EU’s internal market enables us to trade freely with our neighbors, resulting in free cross-border flows of people, goods, and capital. For Denmark, this has been a major benefit. We have been experiencing economic and social gains to the point of now being one of the top five countries in terms of human development and one of the top countries in terms of GDP per capita. As a small open economy, we respect and benefit from the rules-based global market, and we have experienced first-hand the fruits of regional and global connectivity, where differences can be harnessed together to complement each other rather than tearing each other apart. Our deep integration with our neighbors extends to the fact that there is a bridge between Denmark and Sweden, which ensures a healthy two-way flow of people and

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goods. This pose as a strong fundament for people-to-people contacts and better understanding of each other’s culture and expectations.

I think it is about time that this region also took sustained steps to reduce mistrust and increase cooperation. Challenges remain in the best of inter-state relations so challenges should not deter us from forging ahead, addressing thorny issues, and problem areas. We have to realize that this region is going through its trough in terms of regional connectivity and economic gains. This is despite the fact that some very concrete opportunities to promote connectivity and score mutual economic gains exist in the region. I am confident that all countries in the long run will benefit from robust connectivity and better integration. It is the short run that requires prudent and masterful negotiation so short-term considerations are not allowed to hold the future hostage. I am confident that this platform of researchers and experts jointly convened by RDDC and NUST GTTN can lead to attractive ideas and proposals, which in turn will create an opening for the promotion of connectivity at different levels of breakthroughs in policy formulations. I feel pleased to note that the Danish experience can contribute to the capacity of facilitator in the deliberations of the joint international conference, but what is certain is that solutions would have to come from the region. This conference has been designed to generate meaningful ideas, and I hope that all the sessions and the workshops will be dynamic and that all will present honest opinions and ideas to make this conference a success.

Inaugural Session. H.E. Ole Thonke, Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan during his opening speech (NUST Archive, 2016).

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Keynote Address by General Ehsan Ul Haq (R), NI (M), Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC)I feel pleased to be here amongst noted experts from Denmark, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and to speak on the very interesting topic of “Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity”. Regional connectivity is rightly regarded as a means to promoting mutual understanding between nations and people. It has the potential to defuse conflict and turn confrontation into cooperation. Contact between different regions has been a historical constant. This cross-cultural contact has been credited as one of the major means of progress through “historically significant social change” in different societies across the world. Technological development and sophistication in the last 100 odd years have greatly increased the chances and fortunes of greater connectivity.

With the advent of One Belt, One Road and its key node, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, transcontinental connectivity is being sought by those groups of nations that want to see peace, harmony, and happiness prosper in the world, in contrast to those still insisting on zero-sum self-aggrandizement at the expense of regional stability. While regional connectivity is an enabling condition for promoting the life-enhancing values of kindness and mutual growth, maturity displayed by judicious foreign policies by nations is a precondition for regional connectivity to stand a chance. China, Pakistan, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics (CARs), and other South Asian States have a total population of approximately 3.5 billion which is more than 45 percent of the total global population. This massive population bloc does not deserve to be held hostage in the pursuit of negative politics of containment and encirclement.

Historically speaking, different regions have seen different orders of succession of the three chosen outcomes of regional connectivity, namely, peace, growth and empowerment. The development of the 19th-century European state system was essentially growth-driven, leading to an almost ceaseless struggle for power with numerous conflicts and depredations. This in turn led to increased connectivity between the ruling metropolitan centers based in Europe and the peripheral colonized dependent territories in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, an order that came to its end with the outbreak of the First World War. The historical development of Russia witnessed a model of regional connectivity based on empowerment leading to growth in a general international environment of mutual suspicion and conflict. Post-World War Two development of the US and reconstruction of Europe was a model underpinned by growth like the 19th-century European state system with the major difference that intra-bloc struggle for power virtually ceased amongst Western countries resulting in significant empowerment of the masses in the West.

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There was inter-bloc struggle and intra-bloc peace. Similarly, inter-bloc connectivity remained minimal but the intra-bloc connectivity experienced tremendous growth. With first the end of the Cold War; second, the accelerated development of China; and third, the rise of other states to positions of relative power in the Asia-Pacific, South Asia, and Latin America, historical conditions that allow the simultaneous pursuit of peace, growth, and empowerment through regional connectivity seem to be emerging for the first time. Promoting regional connectivity should mean fostering inter-regional and intra-regional connectivity. OBOR and its different nodes are meant to pursue these two types of connectivity as part of a one holistic and concerted plan.

It has to be remembered that these three outcomes, though interrelated, belong to different spheres. Peace belongs to the realm of inter-state relations on one hand and societal relations on the other. In a way, it deals with large political quantities, like states, nations, and societies, whether foreign or domestic. Growth belongs to the economic sphere and relates to the organization of human and material resources in a state to create wealth through production of commodities and goods through exchange and trade of these commodities, as well as the provision of different levels of services. Empowerment relates to how an individual is viewed in a given society in a given state. It relates to recognizing his or her status as a free and responsible agent focused on personal and collective welfare that is moral at the same time. Empowerment also means equality granted to all groups and sections in society and provision of equal chances of national service, economic prosperity, and self-actualization for all these individuals and groups.

Peace will always be durable when based on growth and empowerment. The presence of all three will ensure regional connectivity as a matter of course. Regional connectivity, therefore, requires actions taken by states, by economic actors, and by socio-cultural forces and agents at the same time in order to yield lasting and beneficial results. Regional and global governance regimes act as necessary regulators of inter-state interaction of political, economic, and cultural factors. Development of national and international physical and legal infrastructures leads to better exchange of products of individual and collective ingenuity. Physical infrastructures make it possible to move quantities, qualities, and people from one point in space to another point; and out of necessity normative, legal, and constitutional boundaries will be crossed in this process. Corridors speed up and facilitate this transfer and movement through shared formal frameworks of responsibilities and obligations as well as informal arrangements and understandings.

There are, however, risks confronting the promotion of regional connectivity in the three spheres of peace, growth, and empowerment. First, the power-driven policies

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and actions by states can jeopardize regional connectivity schemes. States find it difficult to escape the path dependency and the weight of tradition and convention. National interest, where it stalls regional connectivity, can and does hinder the same connectivity. It is a simple matter of which side one is on. The solution to this problem is bilateral when the power differential between two states is relatively small or non-existent. It becomes unilateral when it is huge. The solution is multilateral when more than three states are involved. Even then, the unilateral and bilateral tendencies do not completely disappear.

Second, difference in economic priorities and policies of both economic agents like firms and political actors like governments can become an impediment. This usually happens when states normally pursue import substitution policies and discourage utilization of global value chains and production networks. It also becomes apparent when states are working for social ends and businesses are rooting for purely economic ends. The best way to obviate this problem is the formulation of policies that allow the harmonization of wealth generation and social value formation.

Third, competition between social movements based in civil society, political and economic forces and the state’s response to this competition can lead to incomplete mobilization of the public potential to promote connectivity. In such a situation, further movement on domestic and regional integration becomes difficult until one force, or a combination of two forces, has overcome the opposing force and come to control the state machinery. Any understanding between the three is an uneasy and temporary respite that tends toward breaking out into a fresh round of struggle, provided the slightest excuse.

The co-existence of all three forces in a region will mean negligible regional connectivity. In such a situation, great powers have a crucial responsibility to protect the processes of regional connectivity, as China is trying to do because great powers can act as spoilers, as unfortunately India traditionally has done in South Asia. In such a situation, the coalition of middle powers should support the great power trying to promote regional connectivity so that the great power trying to subvert it can see the overwhelming payoffs of cooperation. In the end, I shall like to say that challenges do not tend to be greater than the will of those who want to surmount them. If the will is there, collective solutions that allow positive movement in the direction of the desired goal will be found. We should adopt this approach to the challenges facing the latest round of regional connectivity in the form of OBOR and CPEC.

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Plenary Session 1: UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law

Plenary Session 1 titled: “UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law”. Group photo of speakers and participants (NUST Archive, 2016).

SummaryGrowth and regional connectivity become impossible in the presence of conflict. The importance of peacekeeping and the role that international humanitarian law (IHL) plays in bringing about peace usually remains absent from discussions of ways and means for promoting growth and regional connectivity. Robust growth, both facilitating connectivity and in turn being intensified by increased connectivity, requires peace as a fundamental precondition. Plenary Session 1, therefore, foregrounds the relationship between UN Peacekeeping, IHL, sustainable growth, and connectivity. Four distinguished military professionals from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Denmark with hands-on experience of managing and containing conflict, combating forces of disorder, and peacekeeping discussed strategies, possibilities, limitations, realities, and conditions for greater cooperation for effective and successful peacebuilding. The key objective was to reflect the aspirations of people, answer the demands of effective governance, and obviate the irritants for the recrudescence of conflict.

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Developing a Social Discourse on Peacebuilding in the Region by General (R) Daya Ratnayake, Former Commander of the Army, Sri LankaSouth Asia is one of the world’s most important crossroads and melting pots. South Asian cultures have been characterized by peaceful co-existence between diverse ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups and distinguished by exchange of ideas, goods, and populations. South Asia attained to high levels of spiritual knowledge before the rest of the world. These all-embracing streams of spiritual knowledge have served as a bedrock of social, political, economic, and cultural structures and trends. The location and quasi-peninsular status of South Asia opened it to both maritime and overland contact. These contacts began in ancient times and continue to date. The forms these contacts took have varied substantially. In recent history, South Asia witnessed and bore the brunt of a prolonged intensive colonial encounter under the British Empire of India.

Since 1947, the region has grappled with poverty, disease, ethnic strife, and political conflicts. Today, the region consists of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with Afghanistan as the late entry into the region. These countries can be categorized as a region. In order for them to become a common group, they need to develop a certain commonality of interests, encompassing social, cultural, historical, economic, and political dimensions as well as become adequately enlightened, so as to comprehend the importance of preferring cooperation over conflict.

Due to a natural imbalance of power amongst the states in the region, numerous problems exist in the conduct of inter-state relations, leading to suboptimal cooperation and a manifest lack of collective approaches. This is evidenced by the lackadaisical performance of the South Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Home to the largest population of Hindus and Muslims, the region shows dismal records of human development with about 25 percent of its population living for less than US$ 2 a day. On the positive side, the region demonstrates robust growth trends, which are forecasted to increase from 7.1 percent in 2016 to 7.3 in 2017. Unfortunately, South Asia also remains one of the least economically integrated regions of the world, which limits the benefits of the economic growth.

Many conflicts simmer in the region, with Kashmir rendering the subcontinent a nuclear flashpoint. The region is stuck in a most vicious cycle of poverty, underdevelopment, and deprivation. The power asymmetry between the largest country of the region and others is a recipe for insecurity and instability, further exacerbated by India’s desire to dominate. Furthermore, other world powers and their interests in the region, coupled

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with turbulence in the surrounding regions of South Asia, prove to be destabilizing factors. Additionally, the emergence of non-traditional security challenges also affects the region, and finally, natural disasters make the region vulnerable to other types of threats, too. The collective impact of all these challenges calls for the formulation of a concerted and sustainable response and response mechanism.

The security agenda of South Asia must be based on a comprehensive approach that incorporates political, economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Primary areas of non-traditional security challenges for South Asia are: food and water security, environmental security and management, disaster management, health, and human security. SAARC has tried to increase cooperation through a number of initiatives bringing together civil society organizations, think tanks, business, industry, and media, but the progress has been far from satisfactory.

There is a need for finding fresh ways and consolidating existing ways of making peace between peoples, cultures, societies, and states, based on a dynamic notion of human security reinforcement in a region, which is suffering from a critical welfare deficit but remains preoccupied by the conservative notions of national security. Track I has failed, so maybe Track II, and even Track III, citizen diplomacy can be encouraged and developed to mobilize political and social will, both within and across state boundaries. Social movements in South Asia have failed to provide lasting solutions to the regional problems. CSOs in the region remain straitjacketed in a stylized narrative and minimal engagement with their constituencies and nodes of governance in all countries.

Bottom-up approaches to resolutions of conflict and problems need to supplement top-down approaches. Massive advances in connectivity and technology should be harnessed to promote integration in the region. Initiatives like the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), South Asian Forum, tourism and trade fairs, and establishment of SAARC University are some of the initiatives that have already taken place with great success. We therefore need to learn from success stories of other regional associations, establish effective physical connectivity between countries in the region, and facilitate unhampered people-to-people to contacts and interactions.

The bad state of cooperation in South Asia was amply demonstrated by the cancellation of the SAARC Summit 2016. South Asia is no exception to the global crisis of powerless majorities or democracies subject to the rule of a powerful minority or elites. Regional cooperation will not succeed as long as academics, business communities, think tanks, women, and CSOs are not included in acomprehensive manner. To conclude, it is important to create a South Asian model of social discourse focused on creating a social movement that can forge a South Asian identity so that this movement can find collective solutions to common issues and stand up to divisive political interests.

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Such a people-based platform can provide pre-emptive solutions to problems that otherwise later risk developing into hardened traditional security threats.

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) as a Preventive Force in Capacity Building by Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDCI shall talk about war, especially the laws governing war, thereby focusing on the nexus between compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and prospects for building sustainable peace leading to enhanced connectivity. The conflicts of today are of a hybrid nature. They exist in a grey zone, which is neither all-out war nor the absence of it. Many of these amorphous conflicts include non-state actors, and their theaters include unarmed civilians as well as social, economic, and physical infrastructures whose destruction expose hundreds and thousands to the risk of serious harm. Belligerents in today’s hybrid conflicts target unarmed non-combatants and civilian populations with impunity. Unfortunately, a progressive deterioration of compliance with the Geneva Conventions is evident globally. This deterioration can be seen in the increase of deliberate attacks, including ones against facilities, humanitarian installations, hospitals, and relief convoys.

IHL is not only a binding treaty obligation; it is also an obligation as part of customary international law. Moreover, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has defined genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression in detail. It throws sufficient light on criminal acts against person and property protected under the provisions of relevant Geneva Conventions. Customary IHL encompasses situations of non-internal armed conflicts and extends to non-state actors involved in international and non-international armed conflicts. The law is clear on what does and what does not constitute a crime. What is lacking is the effective tools that ensure compliance with IHL. More problematic is the increasing failure to comply with IHL in different conflict situations, because when national interests trump IHL, human society as a whole suffers the loss consequently. Our humanity distinguishes us from animals and distinguishes human society from the state of anarchy. There is a need to stress indefatigable adherence to and respect for IHL. This is an indispensable stepping-stone for reconciliation, post-conflict peace building, and enhanced connectivity. This sounds idealistic, but in fact comes laden with positive real-world implications. Ignoring IHL will lead to horrendous violations that benefit no one.

Here, it is important to clarify that the topic under discussion is international humanitarian law and not human rights law, but IHL as a body of law that regulates the conduct of hostilities. Compliance with IHL is very high on the political and moral agendas around the globe, but actual practice falls short of agendas. While some may

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criticize IHL as reflective of western values, it is not a valid criticism, as IHL has a universal appeal and application. Customary IHL reflects long-standing rules of war, principles of chivalrous code of conduct commonly found across socio-cultural boundaries. Islamic, Judaic, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist laws all stress respect for life during hostilities. We are talking about something universal and not limited to western civilization. The real problem lies in securing compliance with IHL, for which existing instruments are insufficient.

Compliance with IHL can be prompted in various ways ranging from dissemination and training of the members of the armed forces; to naming and shaming violators; and to proceedings against individual perpetrators and parties to an armed conflict before domestic and international courts; targeted sanctions by the UN system; or engaging with the violating party to remedy its wrongdoings. While there are dedicated judicial bodies for the consideration of violations of human rights law and the provision of guidance and interpretation, there is none for IHL. We need to grasp the fact that values enshrined in IHL are universal so a unitary compliance mechanism needs to be emplaced globally.

Past efforts to promote this universal compliance, mechanism, such as the 2012-2015 round of international negotiations and consultations promoted by ICRC, did not succeed. We also have UN Security Council Resolution 2286 (2016) that “strongly condemns attacks and threats against the wounded and sick, medical personnel, and humanitarian personnel engaged in medical duties, their means of transport and equipment as well as hospitals and other medical facilities”. However, we do not have a global compliance mechanism except for the state responsibility and obligation to comply with IHL.

Against this backdrop, I make three main claims in support of universal compliance with IHL. My first claim is that states do lose in the end when national interest trumps compliance. States are interconnected and interdependent entities, so by failing to comply with IHL they undermine the most basic values of order required for the fulfilment of their interdependent needs like trade, security, and acceptance. By violating IHL, states may seem to have secured their short-term interests but their long-run interests unequivocally suffer.

My second claim is that this violation of IHL and failure of compliance is highly detrimental to the violating military in the long run, affecting their moral, moral standing, cohesion, and fighting spirit. Napoleon is quoted as having said,

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“Every injury done to the enemy, even though permitted by the rules, is excusable only as far as absolutely necessary. Anything beyond is criminal.”

However, the question of military necessity is open to misinterpretation and abuse. In order to prevent this misinterpretation, President Eisenhower, famously stated, during the Allied invasion of Italy, in 1943,

“Nothing can stand against the argument of military necessity. That is an accepted principle. But the phrase “military necessity” is sometimes used where it would be more truthful to speak of military convenience or even of personal convenience. I do not want it to cloak slackness or indifference.”

IHL is not an expression of naïveté. It accepts that harm, death, and destruction are part of armed conflict. It simply aims to limit that harm, centered on the principle of the belligerents’ common humanity.

My third and final claim is that citizens or civilians on both sides lose if IHL obligations are ignored systematically. IHL works as a system of reciprocity. It is remarkable that this reciprocity, based on the compliance with a fundamental set of humanitarian standards, was recognized clearly as far back as 1863 and enshrined in the Lieber Code, authored by Franz Lieber, and signed into effect by none less than U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. The Code defines the prohibited actions as “in general any act of hostility that makes the return to peace unnecessarily difficult”. It can be very difficult to balance the overall objective of peace and the need to combat impunity, but there should be no impunity whatsoever for war crimes so that this strictness can have a deterrent effect on the actions of belligerents during armed conflict.

IHL compliance is, therefore, one of the fundamental pillars on which post-conflict reconstruction will be established and regional connectivity between former enemies will be promoted. Meticulous observation and pursuit of Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aimed at the establishment of “Peace, justice and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions”, is needed in order to promote the rule of law internationally and equal access to justice for all. Respect for and compliance with IHL must be made a priority in military training and incentivized. States must constructively and willingly participate in the international efforts to promote a compliance mechanism. In his speech during the World Humanitarian Summit (23-24 May 2016), the ICRC President, Peter Maurer, said,

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“What will future historians remember from our present time? That millions of people were deliberately or carelessly targeted; that their homes, hospitals, and schools were destroyed and entire cities bombed to rubble; that millions of men, women, and children were forced into displacement?”

These words are worth constant reflection.

Plenary Session 1 titled: “UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law”. From the left: Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN and Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC. (NUST Archive, 2016).

The Contours of UN Peacekeeping: Vision for Tomorrow by Brigadier (R) Mujahid Alam, Senior Fellow GTTN, Principal, Lawrence College, Murree, & Former Advisor, UN Peacekeeping DepartmentThe fundamental purpose for which the United Nations was founded was the establishment, maintenance and preservation of peace. UN Peacekeeping, therefore, acts as the blazon of UN activities. The UN has persistently performed its peacekeeping mission in dangerous socio-political environments and its peacekeepers have acquitted themselves well. However, there have been dogged allegations of mistreatment, discrimination, sexual abuse, and exploitation against the UN peacekeepers from time to time.

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Among the many problems confronted by UN Peacekeeping, the bicameral structure of sorts of the UN itself is a key issue. Furthermore, it is also an issue that the UN has had to engage in turf wars with different national governments over the question of the command of troops. It will not be too far-fetched to say that UN Peacekeeping confronts challenges in the triple domain of design, delivery, and execution of its missions. It is noteworthy to mention that the end of the Cold War marked a transition point for UN Peacekeeping. The post-Cold War world was one in which the UN had to adapt itself to deal with intra-state conflicts and civil wars whereas during the Cold War it dealt mainly with conflict between states.

This necessitated a change in strategic outlook and operational preparedness. What also changed was the nature of missions from mainly observational to implementation of peace accords and treaties, which overstretched the resources at the disposal of its peacekeepers. As part of its mandate, the UN sent huge peacekeeping missions to Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia with mixed outcomes. Despite a laden history, the UN will continue to be the largest, reliable, and most effective existing means for peacekeeping in future as in the past. UN Peacekeeping in the 21st century will continue to be a challenge calling. Chronic lack of security and instability in the developing world will demand an increasing number of missions. When these missions materialize, they will function in highly charged political contexts, worsened sometimes by the threat of environmental and natural disasters. These missions therefore will need to have the correct strategy that would respond to every challenging situation correctly and timely. Hackneyed approaches to peace will be doomed to failure.

UN Peacekeepers will need to be well-versed in international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the “law of war” or “the law of armed conflict”, enshrined in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols of 1977. Ensuring adherence to IHL by the warring parties or parties to a conflict, as well as by the peacekeepers themselves, will have to be prioritized in UN peacekeeping missions and their operational protocols. Compliance with IHL should be complemented with unequivocal respect for international human rights law. There must be zero tolerance in the UN for human rights abuses by either the combatants or the peacekeepers. UN Peacekeepers must be trained well to deal with fluid non-traditional threats to security as well as be prepared to perform non-traditional assignments related to reconstruction, resettlement, maintenance of law and order, election duties, community health, human rights monitoring, etc.

The UN would have to consolidate cooperation with various kinds of regional organizations for coordinated division of responsibilities and tasks but at the same

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time retain operational command of the peacekeeping missions. Establishment of a viable coordination and cooperation platform in this regard would be welcome. The process of peace negotiations will have to take the center stage in the enterprise of peacekeeping. This process should be transparent, committed, and trusted by all the parties to the conflict and should be rooted in the internationally recognized legal framework. Furthermore, it should be supported by pragmatic and realistic implementing mechanisms and underwritten by sufficient financial resources hereby reflecting regional support for credibility and continuity. Finally, it should be seen to enable and strengthen the democratic will of the people affected by the process.

Future peacekeeping must of necessity be sustainable. Unless sustainable, it will create more problems than it will solve. The UN will have to concentrate more on post-election contexts in societies and regions emerging from conflict. This means that there will be a need for seeking funds and donors both inside and outside the UN system. Alternative and unconventional funding strategies will need to be discovered and explored. Multidimensional cooperation and support will have to be sought. UN peacekeeping will need to become more inclusive in vision and mission, and forward-looking, learning from the past but not becoming a hostage to it.

Capacity building will become the focus of UN Peacekeeping training, both inside the peacekeeping missions and in their scope. This means that policy will need to be carefully developed and capabilities required to implement the peacekeeping policy will require a developmental effort. A global network of operational support will need to be emplaced with the cooperation of other international and regional organizations, governments, private sectors, civil society, and local communities, and robust planning and monitoring mechanisms will have to be designed for effective peacekeeping in the future. In sum, cooperation and consensus will remain the foundational values in 21st-century UN peacekeeping.

Interactive Session 1The interactive discussion following Plenary Session 1 led to a discussion about Kashmir. It was stated that the Kashmir issue could arguably be considered as the key cause of South Asia’s failure to become a truly functional region in terms of connectivity and integration. A comment was raised by a panelist, who emphasized that India also has been influenced by other actors, which affect its actions in Kashmir, a circumstance often neglected by many scholars and experts. The panel then concluded that all actors need to understand and variate their perspectives in order to offer any concrete and sustainable solutions to the Kashmir issue. During the session, it was also advised that talking and thinking about Kashmir necessitated the acquisition of complete knowledge of the historical origins and nature of the conflict, including

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the different stages of evolution and development of the Kashmir issue. Without such nuanced knowledge, any contemporary analysis of the problems would fall short of a satisfactory treatment.

The role played by the hasty rollback of colonialism in the region was also mentioned as one of the causes of the continuation of old issues that had been kept simmering for a long time. It was stated that the colonial powers left a power vacuum in the region, which regional actors are dealing with today, because the borders created by the former colonial states separated many local tribes. Thus, the borderlines have consequently created incitement, enabling terrorist groups to gain power and influence in these areas. The former colonial powers are therefore still embedded in the region, because many of the terrorist groups have an ideology that seeks to bring down former and current rulers through armed struggle. It was cautioned, however, that colonial lack of responsibility not should be seen as a blanket cause of all old unresolved issues in the region. What needed to be kept in view was how old issues could metastasize to the spheres of regional cooperation and connectivity, thereby hindering progress by mutating into security threats. Thus, a more concerted approach was required for regional issues, which was not possible without connectivity, without building bridges, and without prioritizing the objective of reducing mistrust, obviating misunderstandings, and working towards creating a peaceful and growth-led region.

Plenary Session 1 – RDDC CommentsThe comments below are exclusively those of RDDC and do not reflect NUST Global Think Tank Network’s viewpoint in any way.

The long troubled relationship between India and Pakistan in relation to the Kashmir region was the source of most of the discussion throughout Session 1. Although the Kashmir dispute can be considered one of the core security issues in the region, the conference was not intended to address Kashmir, which would have required Indian representation. Consequently, political statements and comments took valuable time from the session’s main objective, namely how to uphold peacekeeping and implement International Humanitarian Law in security forces. RDDC wants to conclude that it is important for future plenary sessions (and roundtables) that each moderator is sufficiently prepared and selected in relation to the conference setting and the intended objective of each session.

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Plenary Session 1 – Comments of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN)The comments below are exclusively those of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) and do not reflect RDDC’s viewpoint in any way.

NUST GTTN notes that the interactive discussion that followed Plenary Session 1 looked comprehensively at the causes of conflict in South Asia in the backdrop of the issue of implementation of International Humanitarian Law. Naturally, this meant discussing Kashmir issue at some length. This discussion was made fruitful by the masterful moderation of the moderator, a distinguished public intellectual, of the Plenary Session 1 enabling a many-sided reflection on the issue. There were reservations expressed during the session by the non-Pakistani participants that Indian viewpoint should have been present. In this context, NUST GTTN considers that the absence of Indian participation did nothing to detract from the comprehensiveness or fairness of the presented and discussed views, especially when it is kept in mind that the event was an intellectual exchange occasion and not international negotiations or a diplomatic meeting on Kashmir. In actual fact, the presence of such a viewpoint would have unnecessarily made the whole productive debate adversarial. It would have been ideal, however, if Muslim Kashmiri representation from Indian-Occupied Kashmir would have been present to bring home to the participants and the audience how Indian brutalities and intransigence was one of the biggest causes of the lack of connectivity, security and peace in South Asia. For future conferences, where Kashmir issue was to be a theme, energetic efforts could be undertaken to ensure comprehensive participation.

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Plenary Session 2: Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment

Plenary Session 2 titled: “Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment”. Group photo of speakers and participants. (NUST Archive, 2016).

SummaryRegional reconciliation is an ideal that a zero-sum realist approach will not help achieve. The eye that looks at regionalism through the prevailing geopolitical lens does not catch the call for empowerment of women. Although the unresolved Kashmir issue remains a nuclear tripwire, strategic restraint and experimentation with other approaches for reconciliation should not be ruled out. Women’s empowerment gains prominence as an alternative approach for peace, conflict prevention, and the objective of sustainable growth. Operationalizing of Sustainable Development Goals with women-related issues is worth consideration. One speaker put forth ten idealistic propositions for regional peace and prosperity within the context of global conflict and cooperation. In an anarchic global structure, such idealism sets the bar of expectations fairly high where the pursuit of power and money preside over the common need for security and prosperity. The uneven distribution of power and global wealth has been a constant of history. Although some recent technological developments have

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gained momentum to mitigate global inequalities, in South Asia it is strongly linked to global dynamics and tendencies. If South Asian powers keep the channels of result-oriented dialogues open, there could be prospects for conceiving common action to resolve differences and resolving bilateral disputes. Since the overriding security considerations in South Asia are no longer embedded in the region alone, the space for peace should be expanded through conflict resolution.

Regional Organizations for Peace and Development by Mr. Owais Ghani, Senior Fellow GTTN & Former Governor Balochistan & KPThe regional and international organizations aim at providing a vital forum for cooperation and constructive integration among nations and regions. It is, however, imperative that we understand the historical context of the creation of these organizations. The contemporary geopolitical environment in fact took shape in the 1860s with the rise of two young nations, the United States (U.S.) and Germany, once they had stabilized their political systems. In America, the civil war was concluded with the victory of the north so that the U.S. would be a tightly knit union instead of a loose federation. On the other side of the Atlantic was Germany, which underwent the Bismarckian unification of the Princely States of Germany into the German Empire. Bismarck had plotted the parliamentary monarchy. This political system stabilized the ageing colonial powers of the British, French, and others. The U.S. first became a colonial power when Panama became its virtual protectorate in 1846, and the U.S. fully stepped onto the world stage after winning the 1898 Spanish-American War and seizing Spanish colonies namely the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The two powers then inevitably moved toward confrontation. Germany’s military power was shattered with a subordinated economic ascendency in the two world wars. America found an opportunity in the British Empire’s initiation of World War I to block the rapid rise of Germany and its Euro-Asian land-bridge railway project.

The two-centuries-long tug-of-war between global powers such as Germany, the Soviet Union, and America is in fact the backdrop against which lies the contemporary geopolitical canvass of the world. The “Americanization” of global geopolitics and trade launched under the garb of globalization started in 1889 and went right into the 1990s. The first sign was the famous consensus towards global governments – a talk by Williamson in 1989 on the basis of which a book was published in 1991. This Washington consensus gave guidelines for American multinationals and international financial institutions so that they could be used to control the global economy and geopolitics. The U.S. powered itself into world leadership in 1944 and 1945, since its economy, manufacturing base, and infrastructure were intact. The internal collapse of Soviet Russia left the U.S. as the world’s sole superpower. Fukuyama, a bureaucrat in the U.S. establishment, wrote an essay on the end of history in 1989 followed

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by his book in 1992. He had pondered the evolution of government and state, the liberal democracy in the free market, and a socio-political model for the entire world, and postulated that liberal democracy was the final form of government. The American policies of unilateralism and militarism seeking direct military solutions, and the decline of internationalism, which was framed around the subject of today’s deliberation on regional organizations, can be traced back to this time.

During the past fifteen or twenty years, the unipolar world and globalization have made a partial retreat, largely because of China’s rise as an economic and military powerhouse and competitor. Another reason is the damage in military prestige to NATO and thus the U.S., due to their weak strategies for resolving conflicts, for instance in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 2008 global financial meltdown has also damaged the prestige of the free market capitalism concept, which therefore faces challenges in implementing a socio-political model through globalization as the ideal solution. Moreover, growing populations and dwindling resources have led to increased protectionism.

Regional connectivity and cooperation are by far subservient to the global environment. It is therefore essential to focus on the birth of modern-day international and regional organizations. This takes us to the history of the two world wars, which caused tremendous devastation in Europe, Russia, and Japan. It traumatized the entire world while Europe incurred maximum loss. Thus a push was made by the European nations to form the United Nations organization – then the League of Nations – as a platform for diplomacy and peaceful resolution of conflicts. However, this organization has unfortunately been propagating the interests of great powers only. The purpose of the UN has been undermined right from its inception, as the concept of veto power completely demolished the political ethos, and the organization has failed to resolve major issues such as Palestine, Kashmir, and Cuba. It is victim to the imperial manipulations of superpowers, since when resolutions are not according to their whims, the direct impact is discontinuation of the financial lifeline of the organization.

The U.S. ensured its domination in the UN by basing its headquarters on its homeland and instituting veto power in the Security Council. In addition, the proliferation of regional organizations since the mid-1990s coincided with increasing U.S. unilateralism and policy of bypassing the UN. Some prominent organizations across the world are: the Organization of American States (1908); the Commonwealth of Nations (1931); the League of Arab Nations (1945); the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949); the European Union (formerly EEC, 1951/58) – the most successful regional organization so far; the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (1960); the Organization of African Unity (1963), AU since 2002; Association of South-East Asian Nations (1967);

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Organization of Islamic Cooperation (1969); Economic Community of West African States (1975); Gulf Cooperation Council (1981); South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (1985); South American Common Market (1988-1991-1998); North American Free Trade Agreement (1994); Collective Security Treaty Organization (1992- 94); Shanghai Cooperation Organization (2001), known as Shanghai-5 in 1996.

Development is dependent on peace, which is usually pushed aside in most international conflicts. At times, no UN mandate has been given for obvious reasons: Chechnya because of Russia and Cuba because of the U.S. are major examples. Furthermore, obstructive diplomacy occurs once the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), controlled by dominant powers, lacks interests. The interests of multinational organizations also set agendas, such as in Africa. The issue of Rwanda is another example of ignorance on the part of a regional organization, which could not be managed and eventually died away. Peacekeeping forces are also deployed as per the interests of UNSC. There have been instances where international interventions outside UN auspices (labelled as an action of coalition forces) were actually opposed by the UN. Another case is the intervention by extra-regional organizations such as NATO’s – mainly a European military alliance - operations in Afghanistan.

The predominant operative factor is therefore superpower geopolitics based on own interests. Laurie Nathan of the Crisis States Research Centre, in his 2010 paper, presented a debate between three different schools of thought. First is the neo-realist view, which posits that organizations can do little because the anarchical international system generates relentless competition for power and security among states, resulting in uncertainty, mutual suspicion, and fear. Second is the liberalist view, according to which states set up as organizations in order to advance their own interests and facilitate collectively beneficial cooperation. The usefulness of such organizations is that they provide states with information and feedback, thus reducing the uncertainty and risks associated with the anarchy of the international systems. Third is the constructivist view, which proposes that the fundamental structures of international politics are socially constructed and shape the identities and the interests of states. These vary between relationships of mistrust and conflict and relationships of trust and cooperation. Interdependence, collective identity formation, and institutions of sovereignty and democratic peace have greatly reduced the dangers of anarchy. It can rightly be concluded that the peace-making effectiveness depends largely on whether member states want the organization to be effective, whether they have the needed political trust and cohesion, and are willing to devote resources.

Conflict prevention or resolution varies greatly from one case to another. In the case of the EU, it is highly successful whereas SAARC is completely or largely ineffectual.

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Similarly, ASEAN has been successful in certain types of conflicts and not in many others, and the OAU’s success has only been evident in certain periods. It is important to factor in the negative components that have been impacting the effectiveness of regional organizations. They are lack of common values, such as pertain to religion, ethnicity, culture, and traditions; contested sovereignty; overlapping responsibilities; lack of capacity; role of dominant regional powers such as that of India in SAARC; and extra-regional factors namely external powers, MNCs, etc.

Regional organizations in the globalized world can serve as an effective bridge between nations and their systems. They can provide a forum for trust building through the establishment of common policies, conflict resolution, and a convenient platform for diplomacy and economic cooperation. The international community is burdened and this requires prudent steps for multidimensional cooperation between the nations of the world. A few recommendations for a way forward would be relocating UN headquarters to a central and neutral place; elimination of the right to veto in UNSC in order to generate free debate and reliance on moral forces of truth and justice; and support and recognition by the UN of regional organizations in order to strengthen their legitimacy and efficacy. The leading role of regional organizations must not be undermined in this region to help nations reach consensus on issues of collective peace, empowerment, and growth.

Seeking Common Ground for Social Inclusion by Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, Chairperson, Rahnuma for Social DevelopmentThe post-Cold War globalized world is witnessing shifts in power configurations and the locus of nation state conflict and co-operation to the regional level. Discourses at international levels, such as this one, are extremely significant for shaping a narrative of unity and peaceful development for South Asia. Findings in this regard are thus based on the evidence of realpolitik that places a caveat on the attainment of regional peace and growth through social empowerment; i.e., for regional reconciliation and social empowerment, it is basic to take account of the impact of the region’s politics on security and stability. It is worthwhile to note that the amity and enmity of this region interlock with each other, a recent example being the dissolution of the SAARC Summit to be held in Islamabad, simply owing to lack of unanimity amongst member states. In order to realize result-oriented peace building, it is a prerequisite to resolve conflict first by removing its cause. For a robust and sustainable human security con-flict resolution, growth, and empowerment go hand in hand.

The theory of Regional Security Complexes (RSC) by Barry Buzan is relevant to the interlocking of regional enmity and amity. In his famous book “Regions & Powers: The Structure of International Security” (co-authored with Ole Wæver), he says that

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South Asia’s RSC is dominated by conflict and not by the factors of co-operation. The primary conflicts that he has identified are unsettled disputes, negative threat perceptions, non-state actors waging proxy wars, racial discrimination, ethnic strife, ideologues, and identity crisis. Therefore, a primary requisite is factoring in regional conflict reconciliation for peace, growth and empowerment. The core issue of conten-tion between the two major powers in South Asia is Kashmir, which having become a nuclear tripwire, lends itself to immediate resolutions.

To seek common ground for social inclusion in South Asia’s various segments of society calls for attention: the elderly, women, youth, families, disabled persons, minorities, displaced people, and refugees. In generic terms, the regional common ground is structuring of social protection systems, which will reduce vulnerability across life cycles and ensure cumulative benefit across generations. The common ground for social inclusion in the region can be found in the specific areas of: the role of local governments; rationalization of the mechanism of SAARC; women as peacebuilders; and inclusive sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The structure of local government has been constitutionally mandated in all countries of this region, and therefore it is well poised to provide a shared vision. Further, there is an inclusion and empowerment of the marginalized, as there is representation at the grass-root levels of workers, peasants, women, and minorities. This set-up can therefore ensure social harmony, participatory democracy, inclusive governance, and involvement of stakeholders in the process by which society is managed, ordered, and represented.

The SAARC Technical Committee on Women, Youth, and Child’s agenda comprises Convention on Preventing & Combating Trafficking in Women & Children for Prostitution; Charter on Widows; Strengthening Livelihood Initiative for Home Based Workers; and SAARC Gender Policy & Advocacy Group (GPAG) whose recent meeting was held in 2015 in Islamabad. If allowed to function by its members, SAARC has the potential to frame the architecture of the neighborhood and serve as the mechanism for transformational change.

The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) has broadened the approach of SDGs to include human, social, and economic security while recognizing that social exclusion and inclusion are context dependent. Patriarchy is both ideological and structural in South Asia. Common sense, then, tells us to start operationalization of SDGs with women-related issues and the rest will fall into place. It will also be useful at the regional level to develop guidelines on the roles of all stakeholders – public, not for profit, for profit, and civil society – to work together through an orchestrated

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framework for the implementation of SDGs. The inclusion and empowerment of women in peace and conflict prevention is not my idealism in the midst of regional realpolitik. It is necessary and pragmatic for the objective of sustainable growth, as Aung San Suu Kyi aptly said: “The empowerment of women cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just, and peaceful life for all”.

The theme of this international Seminar recognizes that peace is not the absence of war. RDDC and NUST Global Think Tank Network must engage with counterparts in South Asia to take the recommendations and findings to a higher level of action and not let remain an unfinished agenda of growth and empowerment because peace without justice is tyranny. Let us also remember that peace is not the absence of conflict but the ability to cope with it, and true peace depends upon creating the opportunity that makes life worth living. For this, we must confront poverty, ignorance, and disease.

Participatory Development and Regional Transformation by Mr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chairman Gilani Research FoundationSouth Asia, comprising over 20 percent of the global population, is neither peaceful nor economically developed. Thus, if one were to wish for global peace and prosperity, there is no escape from wishing the same for this region. In view of the size and significance of the problem, our analysis has to be bolder and more forthcoming than the one spelled out in what we might call the terms of reference for both – our session and more broadly, the comprehensive deliberations to be carried out during this Seminar. The terms of reference contain all the politically correct concepts such as transcultural interface, inclusive debate, resilient culture of networking, and building trust through intellectual and academic discourse, in order to identify areas of common ground for regional reconciliation, sustainable development and stability, and to realize outcomes through solutions in the realms of security, economics, cultural diffusion, and innovative research & development.

All of these polite concepts have been listed at the outset to endorse and reaffirm our formal commitment to them in principle. This would permit one safely to step into the realm of real life, which is strewn with a history of failures and is troubled by prospects of deepening complications in the foreseeable future. A number of long- and short-term problems, awareness and recognition that might help to muddle through a troubled world have been listed.

We live in an unequal world in which power and money – the two prime factors, which affect security and prosperity – are distributed unevenly. The modern world is organized along strict geographical boundaries. Thus, inequality is strongly rooted in locations pre-determined by place of birth and restricts freedom of movement as only

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3 percent of the world was able to move to work across borders over the last several generations. In a world of more than 7 billion, roughly 300 million live in a country other than that in which they were born. The level of inequality is deeply rooted in the process of modernity, which has created the prevailing state system.

There is convincing evidence produced by economic historical data compiled by the OECD illustrating that the regional inequalities are a product of the modern world (1500 AD onwards). The power-wielding populations across the world are strongly convinced about the legitimacy and fairness of the processes and structures, which sustain unequal distribution of money and power. Recent technological developments have nevertheless generated a momentum for mitigating global inequalities. The world in 2016 is therefore less unequal than it was thirty years ago, say in 1986.

The new trend for a changing the global distribution of money and power is exacerbating rather than lowering security tensions. At the same time, the ethics of democratic and inclusive governance, pluralistic societies, and the universality of economic and political rights are experiencing a reversal rather than progressing forward. This declining trend in the universal application of such values is more pronounced among the powerful regions of the world, compared to the less powerful. Hence, the disruptive capability of this trend is disproportionately troublesome. The gaps in unequal distribution of coercive military capabilities are much more pronounced and rigid than the unequally distributed economic capabilities. Around the year 2000, 15 percent of the world living in North America enjoyed 25 percent of annual global GNI and purchased 50 percent of annual production of military weapons; another 6 percent of the world living in the EU enjoyed 25 percent of global GNI. In 2016, both have lost more than 5 percentage points each in terms of GNI. The share in weaponry, however, has changed little.

There is a possibility that geographic walls to protect privileges of power and money will be raised rather than lowered over the next decade. The primacy of unilateral security over universally conceived peace and prosperity is likely to become more popular during the next ten years. New technological developments have facilitated a global framework for businesses and economy. In an interesting twist of events, the shift from national to global paradigms of business has leap-frogged regional economic paradigms, before regionalism matured or took root. The current tensions in the EU, as an economic union, are possibly an expression of that twist of events.

Globalization of socio-economic and political frameworks to understand the world is pervasive. It is not without reason that a relatively small country such as Denmark, far removed from this region and with a population of approximately 6 million people,

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and despite the affluence of individual Danes, controlling a tiny share of 0.5 percent in global GNI is affected by and is a participant in the discourse about the security and development of South Asia. Denmark has been a peaceful nation in its recent history, but its population loves their military, and Danes are more enthusiastic to fight for their country than any other of the 28 nations of the EU. Denmark has been benevolent in that it has provided asylum to refugees and economic migrants, but it is not immune to a severe backlash against an equality-seeking, globalized world. If push comes to shove, it is more likely to be part of a coalition against social and economic changes, which would rectify global inequalities. This has been spelled out in a friendly tone because the awareness of a prospective future might play a small role in its prevention or mitigation.

Despite generating unparalleled global inequalities, the Euro-Atlantic led global economy in which we live today has brought enormous dividends to socio-economic development of the last one hundred years, but this was achieved at the cost of whole century of brutal colonialism in distant lands, and another century of mass slaughter within the European region. The terms of prevailing supremacy were settled after the slaughter of some 60 million human beings in the Second World War alone, most of them within Europe, killed by Europeans.

We are now witnessing the beginning of a change in terms of supremacy settled during the 20th century. So far, there are no signs to predict that the history of European slaughter will be repeated, but it is important to be on guard. The thrust of the argument that has been constructed so far is that regional security and development in the South Asia is strongly linked to global dynamics and tendencies. Such linkages have always existed, but their centrality to the phenomenon is notably higher now than in the past. It is within this global paradigm that we can discuss the dynamics of cooperation and conflict at a regional level.

While we use the word “region” for a group of political states, we sometimes ignore the inherent dissimilarities in the notion of a region in different parts of the world. Which of the two would be seen as a successful regional union – the EU or India? In India, over 30 states, constituting some 1,200 million people have decided to live in a common union. In the EU, 28 states, constituting some 475 million people have decided to only experiment with a union. In the EU, the drive for union is inspired by appealing to a common European civilization. Political and economic considerations are necessary but not sufficient to be part of the union. This tension creates two views about including Turkey in the union.

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In South Asia, the drive for a regional union comes from economic considerations but is prevented by separation in civilizational identifications. Economic benefits or security and political compulsions have sometimes been conducive to regional union but have not been sufficient. There is greater prospect for conceiving common action, which recognizes and respects civilizational differences that birthed separate states. In South Asia, reference to a civilizational union is a source of tension, whereas in the EU, it could be a source of cementing common action. In both cases, the overriding security considerations are no longer embedded in the region alone, and are legitim-ately related to extra-regional global dynamics. The uniqueness of what constitutes the term “region” and the factors conducive to its binding and un-binding are crucial to using the concept as part of the diction in our discourse.

The global drivers for peace and conflict have largely crystalized around the Euro-Atlantic region, which faces the prospect of losing its economic supremacy in the world economy. China is the key challenger. This could be a peaceful or conflicting process. Conceived in the traditional paradigm of conflict, both sides are likely to put together coalitions by designating allies, adversaries, and neutrals. Both India and Pakistan have already chosen partners. This should be recognized. On the face of it, China and its coalition strategy is more comfortable if the competition remains restricted to the economic space; it is the reverse for the competing coalition, whose comprehensive supremacy in the economic and military competition, combined with a strongly held belief in ethics and associated institutional structures, which sustain global inequalities, will compete with an enormous drive by a challenging mass of humanity. The energies of massive populations have been unleashed through tech-nological breakthroughs and a short spell of uncertainty about the implications of a globalized world for redressing inequalities.

As globalization of business and economy overtakes national and regional paradigms, the security paradigm is likely to follow in the same footsteps. It is evident that national security in South Asia is linked to global security contests just as much, perhaps more, than to regional security paradigms. To some extent, this was true even prior to the globalization of a world economy outweighing its supremacy compared to a situation in which military capabilities remain dormant.

The first phase of the Chinese economic miracle has probably climaxed. It requires massive infrastructure, development, and business as an upgrade of its cheap consumer-goods export business. Additionally, it needs to stimulate infrastructures that tap the untapped natural resources in second and third tier economies of the world. Without the new purchasing power created in these two tiers of the world economy, China may be unable to sustain its economic miracle. Many nations in this

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and other regions might juggle to balance their economic benefits from the need of China to continue to grow as a global economic power, and restrict its political and security fall-out through Euro-Atlantic edge in the security space. It is evident that almost all ASEAN nations are inclined to one coalition for security and a competing coalition for economy. For everyone in ASEAN, China is the top trading partner, while the American-led security coalition is the preferred security partner. In the SAARC region, because of its size, India stands out as in a class of its own; and for a host of reasons, so does Pakistan. For the remaining six, including Myanmar, the scenario might be the same as for the ASEAN nations.

In conventional academic jargon, one does not align oneself with a particular school, but this ten-point analysis might seem like a picture constructed by a “realist pen”. In doing so, one is more inclined to learn from the vision of Reinhold Niebuhr. Reflecting on the violence during the last century, he suggested that a discourse by states and their supported structures would do better by restricting itself to a discourse of competition in power and money. A politically and socially correct discourse might, in his view, restrict rather than promote their ability to transform the world into a better place.

Plenary Session 2 titled: “Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment”. From the left: Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President NUST GTTN and Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chief Executive Officer, Gallup Pakistan. (NUST Archive, 2016).

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Interactive session 2The interactive discussion following Plenary Session 2 focused on China’s peaceful development, as well as the voluntary and well-adjusted growth undertaken by China, respecting the rules and norms of the contemporary global liberal order and society. The panel noted that China, through the Belt and Road initiative, was actively seeking mutually beneficial, widespread regional connectivity and coordinated development. The rise of China can therefore be regarded as a unique window of opportunity for regional progress. Such progress was desired and long-called for. Regional growth dividends naturally included a conducive environment of economic and human development wherein resolution of conflicts could be better sought and positively pursued. Thus, China should be viewed and positioned as a strategic partner that the region can use to promote economic growth and connectivity, and China’s priorities are therefore primarily related to economic aspects rather than security aspects.

The last part of the interactive session focused on the role of non-state actors, and how they can be embedded into the peace process without forcing and fighting them down, since this would make the process for peace more sustainable, transparent, and less costly for the regional actors. The panel in relation to this question addressed that non-state-actors cannot amass the resources needed to threaten a government without external support, and therefore stakeholders are required to create consensus about how they should involve non-state actors in the peace process, since no region can function unless the political will of the member states are established. Nevertheless, local leaders and stakeholders related to non-state actors need to be handled carefully, since they have the power to slow down the peace and stability process. Forcing and defeating non-state actors should therefore be regarded as the last option for the regional actors. Instead, regional actors should promote dialogue between one another, which would mean that regional actors should share their aspiration and visions for how they should deal with non-state actors. However, in order to make this process long lasting and beneficial, it is necessary that all engaged actors show political will and engagement, because this would make it easier to implement and initiate reconciliation and cooperation between the regional countries.

Plenary Session 2 – RDDC Comments The comments below are exclusively those of RDDC and do not reflect NUST Global Think Tank Network’s viewpoint in any way.

Session 2 mainly addressed how the UN and the International Society in general has a responsibility in connection with the lack of peace, growth, and empowerment in the region of South Asia. RDDC would like to stress that if future seminars are to gain and address more useful results and recommendations, it is important that

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a focus on the internal disputes between the actors of the region is included. Future seminars should to a higher degree embrace focus on common challenges and obstacles and thereby demonstrate where the main actors have common ground for regional reconciliation. Furthermore, China was given a huge role throughout the session, even though no Chinese representatives were present at the seminar, and a greater focus on the represented delegations could therefore have improved development of specific recommendations in relation to the application of social empowerment as a tool to reach regional reconciliation.

Plenary Session 2 – Comments of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN)The comments below are exclusively those of NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) and do not reflect RDDC’s viewpoint in any way.

The Plenary Session witnessed an engaging and versatile debate on various strategies and possibilities for effecting regional reconciliation by means of horizontal involvement and participation of the regional publics and by means of imagining creative public-private engagement and partnership for peace in the region. One remarkable feature of the interactive discussion that followed was the fact that the Chinese role in the mega-region of South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, and Asia Pacific was recognized as the major contemporary driving force for greater connectivity and mutual development of all the mentioned regions, even though there was no representation at the seminar from the People’s Republic of China. NUST GTTN believes this is owing to the fact that there is wide intra-regional and inter-regional awareness of the key role China is playing, along with other major North American and European nations, to promote integration within and between these regions. NUST GTTN, therefore, recommends that for future conferences, where regional connectivity was to be the theme, Chinese representatives must be invited.

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Workshop 1: Countering Militancy, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Groups in Afghanistan

Workshop 1 titled: “Countering militancy, insurgencies, and terrorist groups in Afghanistan”. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Session Frame:Knowledge sharing in terms of how the development in Afghanistan is perceived by the regional states and identification of the short-term (5 years) political priorities/interests of each state in Afghanistan. Focus should be on specific short-term objectives and an analytical assessment on probable measures that will be undertaken to pursue these interests.

- What key steps have to be taken by Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan within the next five years in order to promote stability in Afghanistan?;

- What are the strategic and tactical requirements for countering militancy and ter-rorism in the rural and urban areas of Afghanistan?;

- What are the root causes of instability and chronic militancy in Afghanistan?;

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- How can the states neighboring Afghanistan contribute to security harmonization and military cooperation to enhance stability in Afghanistan?; and

- How do the inter-state relations of countries surrounding Afghanistan affect the development of the security situation in Afghanistan?

SummaryWorkshop/Roundtable 1 addressed the security issues in Afghanistan from a regional as well as an internal Afghan perspective. The dual approach was intended to bring forth considerations regarding regional dynamics and specific domestic policy initiatives the Afghan or Pakistani government could pursue in order to counter militancy and root causes of social instability.

The roundtable ended up consisting largely of retired Pakistani military personnel, which affected the scope and depth of issues addressed. In general, the contributions were extensive and based on personal experiences from the field. However, this resulted in an uneven discussion of the subject, in which explanatory presentations focused on India, Iran, and Afghanistan, attributing to them the current security situation in Afghanistan with very little attention to the task at hand of identifying possible specific policy recommendations that could lead toward reconciliation between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The subsequent discussion in the interactive session balanced the discussion to a certain extent given the questions from the audience. Concerning the way ahead, there was consensus that Afghanistan’s internal instability is a threat to the region as a whole and while all participants agreed that a solution should be found in a regional frame, the regional states disagree on how it should be handled and which path that initially should be followed.

Below are five brief excerpts of the panelists’ key points followed by a thematic abstract of key elements in the interactive session.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah (R) – The Spillovers of the Afghan Situation: Challenges and OpportunitiesAt the Afghan-Pakistani border areas, many communities live on both sides and regard the border as non-existing. In these areas, neither the Afghan nor the Pakistani government have a strong reach, meaning that a security issue from the border areas will have consequences of instability in both countries.

In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan was left alone to deal with a war-torn Afghanistan. Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States has been able to bring peace to Afghanistan, and Pakistan will not be able to do this on its own – nor should Pakistan attempt to do so.

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A concerning development is that while the Afghans have not been able to bring stability to their country alone, the recent political outreach to India for help will not help bring forth stability in Afghanistan, as India only wants to use Afghanistan to hurt Pakistan. Amidst this complex situation, Pakistan has been left with three possible responses to Afghanistan’s internal security problems:

1) Enhanced border control2) Reform of FATA to isolate Pakistan from Afghanistan3) Take measures to stop TTP from seeking safe haven in Afghanistan

Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain, HoD Government & Public Policy, NUST - The Role of Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Troika for Establishing Regional StabilityThe relationship among the three countries of Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan are important when assessing the regional developments of Central Asia. All three countries have had a criminal profile and been targeted by international sanctions. Among these countries, Pakistan faces a severe issue as the country’s identity is relatively new compared to that of Iran and Afghanistan.

To understand the challenges to the region’s stability, the rules of the game must be defined. First, we see Saudi Arabia as trying to divide Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan by stoking divisions. Second, Iran is using its growing influence in Afghanistan to secure its own interests. Third, India’s funding of projects in Afghanistan is to be understood as a move to take control of parts of Afghanistan to make sure Pakistan does not benefit from CPEC. All these issues leave Pakistan with few options in order to influence and manage regional connectivity, which means that Pakistan can only contribute to regional connectivity in relation to border management control, the number of refugees, and regional reforms.

Looking ahead, Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan should prioritize cooperation as parts of their populations share significant similarities, and cooperation between them could help to defuse the current tensions. Peace in Afghanistan means peace in Pakistan too, and it is therefore important that Afghanistan becomes a developed and self-reliant country rather than a country relying on foreign influence and aid.

Ms. Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies - Understanding in order to Counter Religious Justifications of, and Mobilization to ViolenceThe debate on who terrorists are is often portrayed in black and white. It is there-fore necessary to move beyond this distinction and thereby understand the nature

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and motives of the people in the terrorist and insurgent movements. In respect to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), Mona Sheik’s own research shows that the motives for joining such groups are more complex than the Pakistani military’s black and white understanding of the conflict. She has found that people joined for socio-economic gains, religious motives, and to counter the military presence, which they saw as a foreign occupation.

When looking at how insurgent and terrorist groups have “died out” it has rarely been because of military solutions, but instead the use of intelligence services, police, and invitations for peace talks. Pakistan should therefore consider changing their current military response to match these approaches if they are to root out the terrorists.

As a recommendation the presentation highlighted that all the main actors in the region have to stop the blame game – trouble in Afghanistan is blamed on Pakistan; trouble in Pakistan is blamed on India, and so on. Thus, it is vital to move beyond this paradigm and apply a more self-critical view so that each nation instead asks itself what it can do domestically to counter the threats to the region. In relation to this, there is little evidence that the military is an appropriate tool for eliminating terrorism. The peace talks at present are not working because not all actors are abstaining from using the military tool, and an alternate path towards regional peace has to be initiated.

Air Commodore Ghulam Mujaddid (R), Acting Dean, Faculty of Aero Space Sciences & Strategic Studies, Air University - Contemporary Challenges for Regional Peace and the Way ForwardSouth Asia is a regional security complex where the processes of securitization and de-securitization are deeply interlinked and the patterns of amity and enmity are shaped by security dilemmas and unabated rivalry rooted in the distribution of power and ideational-historical factors. Thus, South Asia has been plagued by weak governments and poor governance, which has resulted in increased corruption, economic deprivation, and political instability. The region is therefore assessed as being prone to new and continued conflict in the near future unless the following factors are addressed:

• A low score in the Human Development Index (Health, Education, and GDP weighted 1/3 each)

• South Asia’s environmental issues• Religious extremism (has increased since 9/11)• Border issues between the states• Weak states

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The lack of a monopoly on violence and poor governance have resulted in a power vacuum and grievances from which violent non-state actors have benefitted. This has strengthened their positions to pose a grave threat to regional peace.

On a global level, it is expected that China’s and Russia’s emerging roles in the region, through CPEC and other initiatives, will be crucial in terms of regional connectivity. India must therefore choose cooperation with China and Pakistan instead of conflict and tension. Furthermore, to enhance regional connectivity, China should become a member of SAARC to secure a strong regional framework and render it more functional. It is therefore vital to improve regionalism and cooperation, because these factors can ensure prosperity of the South Asian region. The main actors should therefore aim to resolve the region’s long standing issues by pursuing cooperation and by focusing on socio-economic development. If all these factors are taken into account, the region will have a better chance of creating peace and stability for their people.

Interactive sessionChabahar PortThe Iranian port of Chabahar partly sponsored by India to open up a new trade route to Afghanistan effectively bypassing Pakistan was subject to much worry from the Pakistani participants. The initial discussion was very emotional with one Pakistani speaker asking how Afghanistan could define Pakistan as its existential enemy after the country had fed, housed, and liberated Afghanistan from communism. An Afghan participant addressed the Pakistani concerns by pointing out that today Afghanistan has a national unified government with over 3,000 young academic workers. The Afghan state is now composed by a new generation with another objective than anti-communism. Pakistan must remember that the leaders and government institutions today are not the same as in the ‘80s. He then elaborated with an example of why Afghanistan had chosen to have goods delivered from the port of Chabahar instead of Karachi. Last year 150,000 blankets for refugees to survive the cold winter were withheld in Pakistan and not released throughout the winter, which resulted in Afghans dying of cold in Kabul. Episodes like these are what have prompted Afghanistan to look for alternative commercial state-partners to ensure timely delivery of their goods.

Clarification of the concepts peace and stabilityThe roundtable speakers were asked to clarify the concepts of peace and stability to understand what kind of peace and stability they were seeking. Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain clarified that he distinguished between positive and negative peace, with negative peace as the absence of war or armed conflict and positive peace as a broader concept that seeks to eliminate the root causes of conflict. We should seek a positive peace solution to the conflict in Afghanistan. Brigadier Shah stated that if a state is

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not able to act and create security, then it should pursue negotiations with the armed group. He then brought forth the prospect of winning a conflict militarily as feasible. The Pakistani military was described as having been successful in defeating TTP with little collateral damage in FATA compared to the United States’ efforts in Afghanistan.

High level of mistrustAn Afghan participant raised the concern that Pakistan and Afghanistan “talk about being friends”, but they are still pointing fingers at each other at every opportunity. The level of mistrust has become so high that every move by India in relation to Afghanistan is seen as a threat as one of the presentations above underlines very clearly.

Looking ahead• Afghan democracy cannot be built by the West; it must be built from within by

Afghans • NATO should support Afghanistan with a Marshall plan• External interventions in Afghanistan must stop• Afghanistan should be left alone by external actors to solve its problems

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Workshop 2 – Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan

Workshop 2 titled: “Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran & Pakistan”. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Session frame:This panel comprises officers and/or experts on military cooperation. Identifying common ground for cooperation, exchange programs, and establishing the ground work for joint forums on border management. Focus should be on initiatives that promote enhanced knowledge/intelligence sharing in the border areas.- Sharing experiences and lessons learned;- Lessons identified: Best practices; and - Initiatives to promote cooperation on border policing

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SummaryWorkshop/Roundtable 2 had the objective of identifying common ground for border management and frontier policing in the border areas between Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. The objective of this workshop was to share experiences and lessons with each other, and to establish communication channels between the participants present at the workshop.

The workshop addressed the fact that the historical development of Central and South Asia has played a huge role in the border’s physical development, which has influenced each country’s acceptance of borders as well as the way borders are controlled. It was recommended that a greater acceptance and respect of borders by each regional country could serve as a tool to improve regional border management in general. However, to reach that objective the region has to address issues concerning the high degree of drug trafficking, refugee trafficking, and trafficking of illegal materials. These obstacles are preventing cooperation from taking place, as each country has different agendas and perspectives on how these issues should be resolved. In conclusion, the workshop emphasized that the international community to a greater extent should engage in establishing premises for mutual and joint border management, which would strengthen the fight against the terrorists and insurgents in the border areas.

The workshop presented many interesting perspectives in relation to border management and frontier policing. However, the workshop had an unbalanced distribution of speakers, as no Afghan or Iranian speaker was present and most of the perspectives presented were entirely based on a Pakistani point of view. Furthermore, the presentations took almost took 20 min. each, which resulted in a very short time frame for interaction between the participants, which was one of the main objectives given the format. In this regard, it is important to stress that the moderator plays a vital role, as the interactive session is the key part of the workshop and roundtables in order for perspectives and concerns to be shared.

Brigadier (R) Agha Ahmad Gul, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN – Effective Regional Cross Border Administration – Policy Imperatives The presentation by Brigadier (R) Agha Ahmad Gul elaborated that the historical development of the region’s borders has played an important role in relation to the current disputes, which is often downplayed and overlooked by many scholars and experts. Many local villages in the frontier regions have historical connections to villages across the borders, which make the local villages unwilling to and even hostile against accepting the present established borders. Furthermore, Afghanistan’s refusal to accept the Durand Line plays an important role in relation to the current border dispute, as the terrorist groups benefit from the lack of cooperation between

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Afghanistan and Pakistan, which allows them to make safe havens on both sides of the borders. It could therefore be useful to adjust the Durand Line, so that the local villages on their own can choose which country they want to belong to, which also would make it easier for Afghanistan to control the border. It is therefore also important that both Afghanistan and Pakistan draw up a joint agreement on how they should fight the criminals, terrorists, and drug smugglers, because these groups are the primary reason to the instable situation in the border regions of both Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, those smuggling in reasonable quantities of oil, edible goods, and fertilizers must not be branded as smugglers and criminals but instead as traders, because they have the ability and potential to create economic growth in these areas.

The military interventions in Afghanistan, first by the Soviet Union and then by the U.S. both affected the relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan in a negative way, especially in relation to the current border disputes. Both interventions resulted in a huge number of Afghan refugees fleeing to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries, which has made it difficult for the regional actors to uphold the rule of law in border regions.

Regarding solutions improving the educational level of the border staff to improve customs, emigration, and law enforcement are definitely among the starting points. Improving the educational level could especially help facilitate regional agreements on how different staffs could be trained to counter movements that work and operate across borders.

If all these aspects are considered, it will strengthen opportunities for people-to-people contact among populations in the region and even facilitate official cooperation on security in order to create a platform for bilateral investigation teams that can help mitigate possibilities of escalation and recurrence of prior conflicts.

Major General (R) Ziauddin Najam, Rector NUML & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN – Proposal for Present & Future of Regional Border Management Major General (R) Ziauddin Najam gave a presentation that focused on improving the opportunities for regional border management. The presentation stressed that the Afghan-Pakistani relationship has deteriorated in the recent years as a direct result of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which has increased the amount of weapons and insurgents in the border areas. In order to overcome the obstacles of armed anti-governmental groups operating in the region it is important to develop a coordinated effort among the regional actors. Interference from outside the region should be limited as it is the regional states that possess the insight on how local customs and values work, which is necessary knowledge for stability to succeed in the

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long-term. However, to make cooperation reliable and consistent, it is a prerequisite that all regional actors start recognizing and accepting the region’s borders in order to be able to engage in developing a joint military effort that can eliminate the smugglers, insurgents, and terrorist groups in a sustainable manner.

Another issue concerned the role of the UN, which was criticized for not doing enough to promote cooperation in the region. If the UN took up greater responsibility in order to get non-regional actors to accept the borders, it would reduce the huge amount of mistrust between the regional actors and the non-regional actors operating in the region. Furthermore, this could also serve as a tool to enhance intelligence sharing between the border staffs, which could provide and improve the skills and knowledge of the border staffs, which in a longer timeframe could pave the way for mutual border management and joint frontier policing in the region.

Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC – International Humanitarian Law in Armed ForcesThe presentation by Major Steen Kjaergaard stressed that it is important to focus on regional agreements and connectivity. Aspects concerning politics, military, and security in a regional frame has great advantages in relation to the positive effects that would follow in the wake of reaching agreements and enhancing connectivity.

The presentation also stated that the regional actors should rely and focus on law enfor-cement within the constitutional framework of the states, and thereby initially seek to improve the law enforcement in each state. The right prerogatives of law enforcement can be improved if the regional actors engage through mutual agreements, because this will force the engaged actors to consider how their own law-making agency works compared to that of other nations.

Mutual border management does not weaken national law enforcement; on the con-trary, strict national law enforcement actually promotes mutual agreements on border management. However, the facts on the ground still determinate the possibilities for border management, which therefore complicates the task for upholding international conventions and human rights law in relation to border management. To accomplish the objective of mutual border management, it is therefore essential to train the sol-diers in relation to the rule of law when conducting operations against terrorists and smugglers. Furthermore, soldiers must be educated in relation to law enforcement, as this can serve as tool to improve mutual border management. However, this can be very difficult to implement between two states, because each state has different roles, rules, and agendas, and it is therefore essential that each unit is trained and educated

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not only in their own national laws but also in the laws of other states before they are applied in joint patrols.

As a final remark, it was underlined that even though the states were fighting a very tough war on criminals and smugglers, they still have obligations to secure their population, which is always the main objective of border management. Soldiers conducting these operations must be aware of this main objective and that there is no armed conflict where international humanitarian law does not apply. If armed forces are used, this should therefore always be in the context of reaching a military objective of securing a civilian population.

Mr. Hamid Ali Khan, Director General Counter Terrorism SASSI - Political Dimensions of Policing the Borders: Optimizing the Opportunities The presentation by Mr. Hamid Ali Khan highlighted that the Afghan Wars (Soviet War, Civil War, Taliban War, and the US-led invasion) have made the border areas of Afghanistan unsafe and uncontrolled. This has resulted in a permissive environment in which weapon trafficking has been an inevitable consequence. The outcome is that the task of border policing has been made very difficult and dangerous for the soldiers. For that reason, it is necessary to fight the weapon traffickers vigorously in order to greatly reduce the huge amount of weapons in the region.

Pakistan and Afghanistan should engage on how border management can be improved by taking initiatives toward a new border mechanism system, which could be used to initiate a joint patrolling system that could reduce the amount of human and material trafficking. In order to make this border system sufficient, it can be useful to make fences and to establish more checkpoints as this would make the border controls more capable of upholding the rule of law at the border areas.

In relation to this aspect, it is also important to include Afghanistan in regional cooperation agreements in order to get the regional actors engaged and activated in Afghanistan. Creating more bilateral and regional agreements on security issues would also include sharing the burden so that Afghanistan and Pakistan are not left alone with border security issues. Bilateral cooperation on frontier policing in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan should still be given priority both in relation to enhancing security and to reducing costs of controlling the border, something that would benefit both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As a final remark, the presentation highlighted the Baluchistan region as an area, where weapons trafficking, human trafficking, and drug trafficking are a severe problem. A more sustainable plan for Baluchistan should be developed in cooperation between

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Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran, as all these actors would benefit from making this region more stable and peaceful.

Interactive SessionThe interactive session took the focus of addressing the role of governance in relation to the current border disputes. It was emphasized that the governments in each country should direct more focus and apply a more sustainable policy in improving border management. Political agreements between Afghanistan and Pakistan could serve as a good driver for improving other bilateral relations and also in relation to attracting other regional states to take action and enter a progressive path of political agreements. In addition, this could also lead to economic agreements, which also could pave the way of improving security aspects as well as the living conditions for the civilian populations in general.

Another element that was discussed was the cultural and historical connection between the populations on both sides of the borders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The cultural and historical connections are one of the most obvious areas where common ground exists, yet it is often overlooked and downplayed. A greater understanding and engagement of the cultural and historical connection could also be applied as a tool to improve the acceptance of the borders, and thereby expand the possibilities for bilateral investigation teams and hotlines to be established.

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Workshop 3 - Forecasting the Future – Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan

Workshop 3 titled: “Forecasting the Future: Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan”. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Session frame:Initiatives, ideas, and knowledge sharing between experts and researchers of trade and commercial relations in the region. Companies engaged in the region could also be invited to participate in this workshop. Focus should be on specific projects and sectors that could engender future trade agreements (short-term) with at least three of the regional states fully engaged.

- The role of multi-national companies (MNCs) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Afghanistan;

- How can regional companies contribute to growth and development in Afghanistan?;

- Identify key sectors for development in Afghanistan: Energy and water, Infrastruc-ture, agriculture, construction; and

- The prospects of Business-to-Business (B2B) cooperation of regional companies on specific projects in Afghanistan.

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SummaryWorkshop/Roundtable 3 dealt with projects and sectors that could engender future trade agreements in a short-term perspective by addressing how national and multi-national companies possess the ability to contribute to political stability through economic growth and development. The workshop underlined that energy, water, infrastructure, and agricultural sectors can work as drivers to enhance Business-to-Business (B2B) cooperation between small businesses and larger companies in the regional states. The main conclusions emphasized that although there is a low level of law and order in Afghanistan, there are still good opportunities for investment. These investments should not aim to solve political crises in and of themselves, but instead work in relation to the circumstances, and in this way influence the political level in a positive direction for businesses. However, the security situation in Afghanistan largely prevents a majority of local and foreign companies from investing, since it requires a large risk from the investors when establishing projects, and in a long-term perspective, it is therefore essential to resolve the general lack of security in order to improve the level of investments in the country. This does not mean that foreign investments cannot take place now. In order for these to take place, it could be helpful to identify companies and small businesses that are willing to accept risks.

Mr. Sayed Mahdi Munadi, Head of Research, CSS, MFA – The Prospects of B2B (Business to Business) Regional Cooperation: The Case of Afghanistan The presentation highlighted that the prospects of B2B in Afghanistan requires a greater focus on regional cooperation for initiating successful and relevant commercial pro-jects. However, separatism, terrorism, and radicalism are on the rise in Afghanistan, which challenges and prevents economic projects from being initiated due to the lack of security in many provinces. It is therefore vital that the regional actors improve cooperation in relation to the security issue, so that economic investments can take place. One of the key obstacles is that each nation is naming terrorists as good and bad, which has created a huge amount of confusion about whom each nation should target in their fight for stability. The main actors should therefore jointly identify which groups that can be designated as terrorist groups and on that basis make mutual agreements. This could serve as a tool to produce greater security in the border areas between Afghanistan and its neighboring countries.

The presentation recommended that economic initiatives should be given a higher priority, because economic projects have the ability to promote and improve peace and stability in general. Afghanistan needs more inclusion in economic and regional projects in order to improve progressive cooperation between the country and other main actors in the region. As an example, the presentation highlighted the China–

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Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agreement, which is a project that indeed has the ability to improve the export and import possibilities in Afghanistan, from which all the countries in the region will benefit. A future cooperative project that also contains good opportunities in relation to economic growth is China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative from 2013, whose aim is to create connectivity through transit and trade throughout South Asia, and hopefully Afghanistan will have a role in that project.

Major General Muhammed Afzal, HI (M), DG FWO – Bridging the Divide: Identifying Key Sectors for Development in AfghanistanThe presentation by Major General Muhammed Afzal described Afghanistan as an express door to Pakistan, which Afghanistan to a higher degree should use to its advantage. In order to do so, Afghanistan needs to solve its many disputes concerning lack of security, bad governance, meltdown in employment, lack of skilled labor, and insufficient infrastructure. The government in Afghanistan should therefore make it their primary objective to expedite legislative work for investments. Furthermore, Afghanistan should use its geographically central location to export its many minerals and resources.

One of the aspects that could facilitate investment in Afghanistan is the improvement of Afghan infrastructure. Improved infrastructure would make businesses more interested in investing in Afghanistan because this would reduce cost and risk. In relation to this, the presentation stated that Pakistan already has rehabilitated the infrastructure in Afghanistan through several projects, such as the roads and rails connecting Quetta and Chaman to Gwardar, which have given Afghanistan sea access through Pakistan. Furthermore, Pakistan granted 500 million dollars to Afghanistan at the Brussels conference in October 2016, and projects concerning infrastructure will therefore most likely increase over the coming years. One of these future projects is the Chaman-Kandahar rail link and the Kabul-Peshawar highway, which will provide both Afghanistan and Pakistan with better export possibilities. Thus, in order to expedite the export process, Afghanistan has to focus on human resource development, which means that skilled labor and an improved work force is required in order for investment projects to take place in Afghanistan.

Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar, Senior Advisor to Ministry of Education – TAPI Pipeline: A Recipe for Peace or Instability? The presentation took the focus of discussing the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline as a recipe for peace or instability in the region of South Asia. The Asian Development Bank initiated the TAPI pipeline in 2015 to create a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India.

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The lessons learned from the project are that actors engaged should to a larger extent share the economic profits from the investments. Greed for profit will only lead to enhanced conflict and war between the engaged actors. It can therefore complicate investments if foreign investors are involved in economic projects, because foreign investors’ only aim is economic profit, while regional actors will have a greater desire for making peace and creating stability in addition to economic growth. Each involved state should therefore have an ambition for cooperation, not only for economic reasons but also for reasons of stabilization. This will improve peace and security in the region, which in the long run also will create better and sustainable investment opportunities.

The deep distrust between the states in the region in relation to investments is another obstacle, which must be improved by getting the main actors to engage in dual partnerships and bilateral agreements. These agreements will have to consider the advantages and obstacles for each partner, so that the agreements are based on a solid and sustainable foundation. If these recommendations are taken into account, it will help facilitate a path toward mutual trust, from which the whole region would benefit.

Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani, CEO Reenergia Enhar, Pakistan – Business Strategy in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries Business strategies are an important approach that have the ability to develop Afghanistan and create opportunities for emerging markets to occur. In order to accomplish this, it is essential to address Afghanistan’s current obstacles in relation to the economic sector.

Afghanistan is in many ways a transitional economy because of the Russian presence in the 1980s, which has complicated the possibilities for businesses to emerge. Afghanistan suffers from the absence of participation in the public and private sector, and from the fight for political control over the institutions, which has made it very difficult for any investment to succeed. Furthermore, Afghanistan is a very sparsely populated country, which challenges the prospect for business initiatives, as transport costs are very high. Moreover, all skilled labor in Afghanistan is absorbed by foreign states, which make it difficult for regional actors to cooperate with Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has already been at the center of many business plans, and none of those has worked until now, mainly due to the obstacles listed above. In order to improve the prospect for businesses it is necessary to connect people and goods so that people can see business opportunities and business transactions emerge. However, improving the prospect for businesses internally requires that Afghanistan grasp the importance of its regional position in terms of geography, and thereby improve the possibilities for regional cooperation in relation to the commercial sector. The primary objective for

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Afghanistan should therefore be to improve connectivity with its immediate neighbors, because partnerships with these will increase the possibility for export of goods and resources. However, the continued focus on Afghanistan’s security and drug trade sustains a negative image of Afghanistan, which frightens neighbors and busines-ses from initiating investments. A regional solution could therefore be to make and improve bilateral agreements in the first place, because this would make businesses in Afghanistan worth the risk for the investors.

Interactive Session The interactive session took the focus of discussing how improved infrastructure can be used to create better possibilities for the export and transportation of goods and resources between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was emphasized that the region has a strong tradition within transportation, which creates an incentive for establishing connectivity between the states and local communities across borders in the region. Connectivity (mainly improved infrastructure) between the main actors will create a huge opportunity for local businesses and will connect multinational companies to the region, which will ensure and improve the capacity building and possibilities for local and small businesses to develop in Afghanistan.

To improve the possibilities for regional businesses and the extraction of resources, economic projects have to include the local communities, which basically means that it is a necessity for the locals to profit from the investments. The prospect of business-to-business cooperation therefore prerequisites that local businesses engage, even if this will result in a lack of regulation of the resources exported. However, in order to materialize these recommendations it is necessary that the populations in each country make demands on improvement of businesses’ ability to develop and grow in order to affect the political levels in each state.

As a final remark, the discussion underlined that Afghanistan must improve its security issues before economic initiatives can be implemented successfully. Thus, it is essential to include security in the economic aspect in order to secure and promote investments. Hence, more regional states should involve themselves in investment projects, as this will work as a self-sustained driver to contribute to regional stability, as all involved states would want to protect their investments.

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Workshop 4 - Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan

Session Frame:- Identifying barriers and challenges for foreign investors in Pakistan;

- Identifying opportunities for international investments for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects;

- Identification of specific projects for industrial upgradation: Challenges and the way forward;

- Promoting business incubators and science parks in Pakistan;

- Specific steps for developing a regional market; and

- Role of Pakistan in creating a regional market.

SummaryWorkshop/Roundtable 4 aimed at identifying whether Pakistan can promote economic growth and create social value through increased awareness of obstacles and challenges for foreign direct investment, opportunities for international investments for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC), and the role of Pakistan in promoting a regional market. Economic growth in Pakistan should be prioritized in order to ad-dress the country’s domestic grievances, which have fueled insurgencies and separatist movements. Furthermore, strengthening the position of individuals and companies wishing to expand their businesses by demanding an easing of tensions with Pakistan’s neighbors, in order to gain an increased market access, could serve as a driver to affect the stabilization process in a positive direction. Increased trade across borders increases the interdependence between the two parties and contains the potential for enhancing knowledge, technology, and labor productivity while also promoting the cultural under-standing between Pakistan and its neighbors.

The researchers speaking at this roundtable all emphasized that India, China, Afghanistan, and Iran are potential partners with whom Pakistan has the prospects to form mutually beneficial partnerships. The presentations were all characterized by an optimism for the development in Pakistan and the region’s states as mutual economic benefits will help settle political conflicts. At the end of the roundtable discussion, many participants were sharing business cards and discussing the possibilities for future cooperation, which in all terms is a valid starting point.

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In the discussion session, CPEC was viewed as a game-changer for the region since it has the potential of serving as a driver in the regional market in which all of Pakistan’s neighbors can take part. CPEC will have an extensive effect on Pakistan, as the planned projects will enhance the country’s abilities to compete in the global market. While there is no doubt of the positive aspects that CPEC brings about for Pakistan, it will not automatically generate the growth and jobs it has the potential to, unless there is a political will to ensure the technological and knowledge spillovers from CPEC projects and investments are implemented in non-directly affected CPEC sectors as well.

Barriers to foreign direct investment were also identified as playing a large role in bringing about economic growth to Pakistan. A frequent mentioned barrier was Pakistan’s inability to settle its security conflicts with its neighbors peacefully.

Dr. Shahid Mahmud, CEO Interactive Group & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN- Replicating the Global Culture of Successful Entrepreneurship and Innovation in PakistanPakistan is very fortunate to have two rising superpowers (China and India) as neighbors as they are some of the world’s largest markets at this moment in history. It creates a huge demand for goods, energy, and transportation services, which Pakistan has to start supplying. By 2050, Pakistan is projected to have the world’s fourth largest workforce and a population of almost 360 million. If Pakistan is to realize the potential that this number entails, it will have to invest in skilled labor. The shortage of skilled workers is already a big problem, which is illustrated by the fact that Pakistan is importing skilled labor from e.g. Iran.

Furthermore, the Chinese Silk-Road (One Belt, One Road – OBOR), is an immense opportunity to boost Pakistan’s participation in the global market, and regional connectivity is therefore already taking place through these investments. However, Pakistan has to remember that while China is creating this opportunity, nothing is free, and if Pakistan fails to add value to its sectors and products, the benefits will mainly fall to China.

The Kashmir dispute is an obstacle not only for security but also for economic growth, and a political solution has to be made so Pakistan can take part in and benefit from the global economy to a far greater extent than what is the case at present. If this is not addressed and Pakistan fails to incorporate itself sufficiently in the global market, it will face job shortages and people will take to the streets rioting due to decreasing living conditions, as they have done in e.g. Greece and Spain.

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Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Principal S3H & Resident Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN - Maximizing the Potential of Foreign Investments in Pakistan for a Regional Win-WinRegional connectivity is the only game in town. The policy of containment or encirclement is a thing of the past. Sharing prosperity and development is the new theme and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) helps developing countries prosper by being a source of:

1. Capital2. Technology3. Managerial skills4. Market Access5. Economic growth

Furthermore, it is a debt-free inflow of cash that helps a country meet its financial requirements for balance of payments.

Pakistan experienced a surge in FDI from 2004-2005 but in the last eight years investment has collapsed. Pakistan has a very welcoming FDI policy, which allows 100% foreign ownership and equal treatment of local and foreign companies, and there is a full repatriation of profit, capital gains, and dividends. The FDI in Pakistan is usually in the service sectors of: 1) Power (energy and gas), 2) Telecommunications, and 3) Banking and finance.

The presentation then highlighted ten key factors that can improve foreign investments in the region; economic strength, economic policy, law and order, political stability, infrastructure, local business environment, quality of bureaucracy, quality of labor force, quality of life, and a welcoming attitude.

Onwards, it is therefore important that economic projects that include energy, trade, infrastructure, industrial, and knowledge corridors be provided with good legislative frameworks and a welcoming environment. Examples of such projects are the CPEC agreement, CASA 1000 project, TAPI gas pipeline, and the IPI gas pipeline, which all should be seen as opportunities and open doors to bridge the FDI gap in Pakistan. Especially the CPEC agreement will be open to everyone in the region, creating a win-win situation for all.

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Mr. Tom Børsen, Associate Professor Aalborg University, Denmark - CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in PakistanWhat is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?The common denominator for CSR is an assumption that companies have the ability and responsibility to contribute to solving some of the societal, regional, and global problems of the world. CSR is on the UN agenda and endorsed by former Secretary-General Ban-Ki-Moon, who attributes an important role to CSR in solving global issues of corruption, environmental issues, and human and labor rights. Companies are not required by law to follow these, but they can voluntarily sign up, stating their willingness to the global community in developing their products in a more socially responsible direction. An important lesson when working with CSR is that it is not up to the West to define it in this region. In order for CSR to be sustainable, it has to be explicitly defined at a regional and even at a local level.

How is CSR practiced in Pakistan?In Pakistan CSR is often done in a philanthropic way where companies donate relief funds to victims of natural disasters or support local communities. CSR in Pakistan is facing some severe challenges, such as a lack of transparency, and for companies to develop the concept of CSR further the local context needs attention. This would open up the concept for a broader interpretation of what can be achieved through CSR. According to the presentation, there are five different approaches by which CSR can be improved:

1. Value based approach (values are formulated and companies work to fulfil them) 2. Stakeholder model (involves dialogue and communication with the stakeholder) 3. Shared values approach4. Philanthropic approach5. Integrative model (the four previous models are integrated)

Mr. Amjad Naveed, Postdoc at University of Southern Denmark - Regional Economic Growth, Knowledge Spillovers, Labor Productivity, Entrepreneurship and InnovationEurope lost so much in the two world wars, and it was after the Second World War that Europeans learned from the past and realized that the blame game between neighbors must end in order to foster stability. This allowed the continent to progress and the European Union has been the tangible outcome of this realization, creating a regional framework for all members to gain from the positive spillover effects of regional trade with few trade barriers.

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Pakistan’s immediate neighbors, Iran, Afghanistan, China, and India, all have the immense potential of bringing about tremendous growth for Pakistan by engaging in regional cooperation. Out of Pakistan’s total exports, only 0.5% goes to India. As India is Pakistan’s neighbor, and a booming economy, the low bilateral trade results is a huge loss of growth, knowledge, and labor productivity for Pakistan, as it is easier and more beneficial to trade with your neighbors than states further away.

Applying the European Union’s regional and spatial dependency model, a model that measures the potential gains of breaking down bilateral barriers with your neighbors, Pakistan could increase its productivity growth by a very high percentage through knowledge and labor productivity spillovers. In conclusion, Pakistan should rethink its bilateral trade relations and focus on peaceful solutions to its current conflicts with neighbors, which would affect economic growth significantly.

Workshop 4 titled: “Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan”. From the left: Amjad Naveed, Postdoc at University of Southern Denmark and Prof Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Interactive sessionHow to ensure Pakistan gains the full potential of CPECPakistan must ensure the infrastructure projects constructed by CPEC will have a sustainable impact on the country’s economic development and growth. The

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investments should be in sectors where Pakistani companies can add a surplus value to the product and have the technological, managerial, and knowledge spillovers take root. CPEC alone will not bring development, it will require political action from Pakistan to ensure its full potential is realized and rooted in a sustainable way to ensure continued economic growth.

EducationThe current efforts undertaken by the government are not enough to address the education gap and lack of skilled workers. When the educational budget was doubled a few years ago, it was a step in the right direction but not sufficient. To fill this educational gap, it will require a change of mentality at the highest level of politics.

As this is highly unlikely to happen in the near future, another solution comes from the technological development of online educational courses at a high quality on the Internet, available for everyone at a small price of 15 dollars. This allows everyone to educate himself or herself and thereby bypass the internal political obstacles, which are failing to deliver these services.

Keep the population satisfiedThe economic growth that Pakistan is expected to experience must have an effect on the general living conditions. If the general population does not feel they are gaining from the economic growth, it could cause them to demand policies that will limit Pakistan’s engagement in the global economy, as the populations in the US, UK, and Southern Europe have done. A demand that would constrain Pakistan’s economy and initiate a vicious circle that would only lead to lower quality levels in the population’s living conditions.

How much are the big companies spending on CSR and how can they be engaged in CSR?A local judge in Pakistan recently called out large companies operating within his domain for not doing enough in the CSR area. There is no official data on how much big companies spend on CSR, but a strategy to engage them in CSR is to start public campaigns on television and in newspapers that advocate why these companies should engage in CSR. Through advocacy, the public attention on this issue can create pressure that most likely will make the companies invest in locally rooted projects to meet this demand.

Trading with IndiaIt was brought to the attention by the chair that concerning trade with India, formal trade barriers are often not the issue; rather informal trade barriers are preventing Pakistan from selling to the Indian market. In addressing trade barriers, it is therefore important to assess and eliminate both the formal and informal trade barriers.

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Workshop 5 – Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region

Workshop 5 titled: “Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region”. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Session frame:Cultural diffusion is a well-attested process comprising the spread of ideas, customs, and expertise from one place to another. The spreading and mixing of cultures is integral for bringing peace back to the region especially in Afghanistan and will be significant for setting all actors on the path towards modernization.

- Cultural similarities between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran and the convergence of these traits and patterns for a better tomorrow;

- Best models of trans-cultural diffusion and their implications for regional collabo-ration; and

- Technology transfer and commercialization in significant fields (agriculture, energy, infrastructure, economy, etc.) through cultural diffusion between Afghanistan, Pa-kistan, Iran, China, and India.

SummaryWorkshop/Roundtable 5 focused on how cultural diffusion and collaboration can be used to promote peace and stability in the region of South Asia. Cultural diffusion can be defined as a well-attested process comprising the spread of ideas, customs, and expertise from one place to another. The workshop sought to appreciate how cultural

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similarities, trans-cultural diffusion, and globalization can create cultural diffusion between Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, China, and India.

The key findings from the workshop were that cultural similarities should be given a higher focus, since this could generate a better awareness of the cultural and historical connection that each country has with one another in order to frame a new narrative. The role of women was highlighted as one important element that can be used to create cultural diffusion, and modernity was also designated as a factor playing a vital role in relation to the cultural aspect. On this backdrop, it was discussed how modernity and technology can influence the culture and the cooperation between the involved actors in the region.

The workshop contained a lively debate, where the participants presented their perspec-tives on how cultural diffusion and cooperation should be applied to make peace and stability in the region. However, a greater focus on the definition of culture could be useful as culture can be regarded as a very broad term, by which the discussion also was affected. The frame for future seminars in relation to the cultural aspect should therefore be defined more precisely as this would help future seminars to develop recommendations that are more specific.

Dr. Uxi Mufti, Social Scientist & Cultural Consultant - The Human Element of Regional Growth: People-Centric Policies and their DividendsThe presentation by Dr. Uxi Mufti took its starting point in culture being regarded as a process that is connected to social evolution in which the children of a nation are culturally influenced by its social heritage. The pattern in this heritage is that the child is connected to the family, who are connected to a tribe, who are then connected to a local society, who are finally connected to the modern nation state. The weak link in this process is between the local society and the modern state, which affects security issues because people sometimes do not feel that they culturally belong to the nation that they live in. The presentation highlighted that it is vital to strengthen the cultural link between the local society and the nation, as no country can survive without cultural awareness and diffusion, and every country should therefore have a desire to forge unity between different cultures. However, each nation also has its own views of the outside world that influences its approach toward other countries, which is important to take into account when seeking cultural dividends between nations.

In order to achieve the aim of cultural diffusion and collaboration, it is essential to require tolerance; appreciate cultural dividends; and promote respect between nations. The aim should be to create equality between cultures and to appreciate cultural

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diversity, as this would lead to cultural democracy in which all the cultural differences of a region are included and featured. All nations in the region should therefore change their attitudes towards other countries’ cultures as oppositional, and instead promote and show that all cultures of the region can be included and accepted. Furthermore, valuing diversity implies creating a social environment that recognizes the unique contributions that other human groups can make. It means creating an environment that maximizes the potential of cultural or political diversity, and thereby creating a fundament for real growth and empowerment to take place.

Mr. Karman Lashari, Director General at Walled City of Lahore Authority - Tracking Historic Traits of Regional Cooperation for a Better TomorrowThe presentation by Mr. Karman Lashari emphasized that cultural diffusion is a process in which successes are achieved by sharing norms and values from one group to another. It is therefore essential to understand each nation’s cultural inheritance in order to accomplish success in the process. Furthermore, it is vital that cultural diffusion is embedded in people-to-people interaction and contact because cultural diffusion can only take place through engagement in this process. However, the culture of South Asia is one of the oldest cultures in the world, and people therefore have a very strong cultural affinity towards their own cultural heritage, which complicates the task of cultural diffusion.

Globalization and technology also play a role in relation to cultural diffusion, because every culture in the region has been influenced by cultures beyond the region. This has resulted in a cultural limbo with nobody knowing their cultural and historical con-nection to other cultural heritages, often limiting travels across borders and physical interaction, which prevents cultural diffusion from taking place. People-to-people contact must therefore be promoted and protected, and local societies should be en-couraged to travel and interact more with other societies, as this would create a better awareness and understanding of the region’s different cultures and their connections.

As a final remark, religion was underlined as a very important element, which often is incorrectly regarded in relation to the cultural aspect. The presentation underlined that a differentiation between religion and culture could be useful, because the role of religion is defined from state to state, while cultures are scattered throughout every country in the region. To appreciate cultural diffusion, it is therefore fundamental to understand and accept the religious differences across the region.

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Mr. Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark - Strengthening Strategic Relations through Government Company Relations and Development The presentation by Mr. Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt highlighted that it is crucial to include the perspective of women in relation to the cultural aspect. It was argued that women should be employed as a tool to speed up the process of peace, growth, and empowerment, because women have the ability to influence men to stop fighting. As an example, it was mentioned that women in Europe on several occasions have been instrumental in stopping conflicts from escalating because women wield power over everyday life. Women can therefore be used to promote cultural democracy and to prevent conflicts from escalating, and a greater focus on women can therefore resolve some current disputes.

As a final remark, the presentation underlined that cultural policymaking should be given a higher priority by the politicians in the region as this could help improve people-to-people contact, and thereby create better interconnection between the different cultures in the region. In order to achieve that objective, it is essential to address the boundaries for intercultural interaction so that people-to-people contact can be facilitated. The boundaries of cultural interaction in South Asia can be related to security issues, so it is vital that the security aspect is improved so that people can interact with each other.

Interactive Session The interactive session started by discussing the role of governments in relation to the cultural aspect. It was emphasized that governments need to take more responsibility and show their political will to increase and appreciate cultural diffusion. It is therefore important that politicians show political leadership and show that they want to promote and protect people-to-people contact in the region. This will also be beneficial for the younger generations as they require role models that can show them how to pass on the cultural heritage to future generations. The young generation is therefore highly important for the prospects of peace, growth, and empowerment in the region, which must not be neglected in relation to the cultural aspect.

Lastly, the discussion emphasized that it is essential to promote the acceptance of the region’s different cultures, and thereby uphold tolerance and understanding among the different cultures. If cultural differences are accepted and recognized throughout the region, it becomes easier to launch initiatives that can promote cultural diffusion. Thus, Europe was highlighted as an example to follow, because Europe has been culturally bound together although there are many cultural and historical differences and disputes.

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Closing Session

Closing Session. Group photo of speakers, participants, and organizers during the Closing Session. (NUST Archive, 2016).

Introductory Remarks by Ambassador Riaz Khokhar, Senior Fellow GTTN & Former Foreign Secretary, GTTNI extend complements to NUST GTTN and RDDC for having put the Seminar together and selecting eminent personalities as participants. The Seminar is about promoting regional connectivity through peace, growth, and empowerment. Clearly, this is a subject of great importance in the current situation when the globe and various regions of the world are going through a transition. According to a famous Chinese saying, “There is trouble in heaven”, but frankly, there is more trouble on Mother Earth at the moment.

Almost all the regions of the world face problems. In South Asia, there are complex relationships between states such as Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, while the re-gional organizations have somewhat atrophied. So, the exchanges during this Seminar hold immense significance as a lot of good ideas have been put forth. Secondly, the adjacent region – the Middle East – is in complete turmoil with no end in sight. Both of these regions have been stalked by extremism and radicalism morphing into ter-rorism, and this is clearly one of the most important problems that the world is facing.

There exists a ray of hope in the Middle East about the prospective end of ISIS or Daesh in the near future. However, this would entail some pertinent questions about the organization, such as what will replace it, and where will the remnants of ISIS

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go, or if they would come to South Asia. The degree of concern is raised owing to evidence of Daesh’s attempt to find their way into Afghanistan and, of course, there are also some reports about this occurring in Pakistan. If you look further in Europe, we have seen how the UK has been through Brexit, in what manner the European Union is going to respond to it, and how relationships are going to evolve between Russia and the European Union. The recent election in the United States with Presi-dent Elect Donald Trump are no doubt a complex injection of a new factor. It is yet to be ascertained what foreign policies will be adopted by the new administration in the White House, especially with regard to U.S.-China relations and the future of the American ‘Pivot to Asia’. Certainly, regional cooperation and connectivity is going to be the order of the days to come.

The Chinese, through their visionary One Belt, One Road initiative, have shown to the world that peace and development are two sides of the same coin. The initiative is not only a geopolitical concept but has long-term, geo-economic implications. Moreover, the essential component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is regional connectivity. An excellent opportunity emerges for all the countries in South Asia in this setup, especially for Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. I do not rule out India because in the ultimate analysis, regional connectivity would be meaningless if an effective modus vivendi is not operationalized within all countries of SAARC. As I mentioned earlier, SAARC has atrophied somewhat because of the complex relationship between India and Pakistan and the other regional situations in general. The subject of collective regional peace and growth is extremely relevant and we are very fortunate that a very distinguished person has headed each Roundtable.

Summary of Roundtable 1 by Lieutenant General (R) Masood Aslam, Senior Fellow NUST GTTNThe Roundtable I chaired focused on countering militancy, insurgencies, and terrorist groups in Afghanistan. By far, this topic is of great significance for the promotion of regional connectivity through peace, growth, and empowerment; especially because this region is in the eye of the storm. When we look at the entire instability of the world, it is either emanating from here or returns into this area. All countries of this region namely Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan are closely linked together. It has been highlighted during the discussion that the existing instability in the region is a fallout from the Afghan jihad, the post-9/11 environment, or the ongoing struggle in Afghanistan. The 9/11 event was a watershed for the world and entirely changed the global security paradigm. There are historical ethnic and cultural linkages, and the border areas, especially on the western borders of Pakistan, have never been governed according to the modern-day terminologies. These areas have therefore been infested with problems such as border management, the issues of over 3 million Afghan refugees who are still in Pakistan, and their repatriation back to Afghanistan.

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The establishment of Pakistan-Iran-Afghanistan troika has also been proposed. This will be affected by the larger international political structure because until very recently Iran was under sanctions. However, Pakistan shares long borders with Afghanistan and Iran, and many other factors besides this one can ensure efficient convergences. The regional players need to focus more on the resolution of inter-state disputes, environmental issues, food insecurity, the rising religious extremism, and improvements in the human development index. A speaker has observed that much of the conflict in this region has been resolved through military means rather than a reliance on holistic political solutions. Moreover, Afghanistan needs Afghan-led and Afghan-owned indigenous solutions. The regional countries and the world need to help and facilitate the Afghan state-building process and the form of government of their own choice. Trust needs to be built among the peoples of this region and the leadership has to set the rules of the game while having a greater focus on and use of regional organizations like SCO and SAARC. In order to create and maintain peace and harmony the countries need to stop intervention, proxies and support to violent non-state actors. Constructing a strong future for this region calls for stronger inter-connectivity, infrastructure, people to people contacts, student exchanges, and business interdependence. Until and unless stability and peace are achieved in this region, any type of foreign investment or a Marshall plan will face challenges.

Summary of Roundtable 2 by Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Former Director General Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan The second Roundtable highlighted various aspects of border management and policing of frontiers in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. It has been posited that the three countries have many commonalities as they have remained more or less one country for almost two thousand years. There should therefore be dynamic systems for ensuring tri-partied cooperation, respect for each other’s borders, political, diplomatic, military and people-to-people contacts, trained investigation teams, and resolution of terrorism and drug trafficking.

For improved political harmony among the regional countries, four prerequisites have been emphasized: mutual recognition of international borders; the resolve to manage the border; converting that resolve into a reality through patrolling and investigations; and the political will to make the entire strategy work. Recognition of borders is im-perative for robust law enforcement. As armies are not trained for this purpose, smart solutions are required such as formal training sessions for law enforcement operations. Similarly, joint patrolling is possible only if the agreement and the responsibilities of the parties involved are clear so that there is no room for confusion. An enhanced economic integration will also ensure strengthening of the law enforcement appara-tus. The procedures have to be channelized to minimize disturbances. For instance,

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the 2,500 kilometer-long, porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan requires hassle-free identification arrangements for individuals and businesses for easy and efficient movement. The Durand Line issue must also be resolved amicably between the two countries.

Border management is necessary to address aspects such as legal immigration, smooth movement of goods as part of international trade agreements, illegal crossings, drug and human trafficking, and smuggling of goods, weapons, explosives, and vehicles. Therefore, if Pakistan now has over 900 check-posts on its side, there is a need to have the necessary number required on the other side as well, even if it is made possible with the help of the international community.

Effective work on a Pak-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement, the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), and the trilateral initiative put in place by UNODC in 2007 between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran needs to be expedited. Integrated border management is absolutely critical and involves three tiers of intra-agency, inter-agency and international cooperation. This, together with an improvement in communication systems between the countries, their seamless integration, and a strong political will can bring revolutionary improvements in the border management mechanisms. The CPEC is offering a huge opportunity for all the countries of the region. Therefore, Afghanistan needs to adopt best practices of border policing and management in order to reap dividends of this multi-dimensional regional shift and to become a transit for Central Asia, Europe, and rest of the world.

Summary of Roundtable 3, by Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Chairperson of KASB Corporation, PakistanThe third roundtable focused on forecasting the future of regional cooperation for initiating successful and relevant commercial projects in Afghanistan. It has been clearly identified that regional cooperation is the new order for trade and economic development and the road to connectivity comes through foreign investment, trade and transit connectivity. The initiatives for CPEC and other similar initiatives in the region like the Turkish railway line are a way for infrastructure development and the best way to reap maximum benefits by focusing on indigenous solutions rather than the imposed ones. The informal sector is already finding its way to do trade whereas the formal sector has lesser volume of trade. For instance, in the recent past about 300,000 tons of coal were imported to Pakistan from Afghanistan, but the latter’s customs department had no record of this economic activity. A strong framework of policy and regulations is therefore essential for Afghanistan and other regional countries to facilitate businesses through joint ventures, chalk out the role of multinationals and private, small and medium enterprises, and promote FDI.

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The regional companies can contribute greatly to Afghanistan’s growth and development. The prospects for business-to-business cooperation for these companies on specific projects in Afghanistan largely depend on the availability of resources and their competitive advantage. Some of the key sectors for development in Afghanistan have been identified as energy, water, infrastructure development, road building, agriculture, construction, mining and data, and internet connectivity. The mining sector offers a huge opportunity in terms of its nearly 1 trillion dollar worth. The challenges like the security situation need to be dealt with properly and should not be given a chance to hamper Afghanistan’s robust cooperation with the region and beyond.

Summary of Roundtable 4 by Dr. Shahid Mahmud, Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Chairman, Interactive Group, PakistanThe fourth roundtable focused on the promotion of economic growth and social value through entrepreneurship and innovation in Pakistan. The varied perspectives covered the topic in different ways such as maximizing the potential of foreign investment in Pakistan for a regional win-win, the aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR), regional economic growth, knowledge spillovers, and labor productivity. The popula-tion size of this region provides us with a window of opportunity, and according to a speaker, this opportunity will exist until 2040. Also, there is a need for understanding our neighbors, particularly China, which is growing today at a tremendous pace and seeks to become the innovation hub by 2020 and the global science and technology hub by 2050. Similarly, India has a 7.4 percent annual GDP growth and is the highest FDI recipient in the region; Iran has enormous natural and human resources; and Denmark’s innovation stands 5th in the world and 3rd in the EU. So, it is time that we bridge gaps, come closer, and adapt to better ways of regional integration and harmony.

There have been discussions on the significance of FDI for Pakistan and the ways to improve it. If our population is increasing at 4 million per year, and our per capita income is around PKR 1,500, we need approximately 6.2 billion in FDI annually while we are currently at 1.2 billion. So, a 5 billion deficit in FDI a year is not a very promising sign for Pakistan. Moreover, growth is happening from a population and infrastructure standpoint with urbanization at 27 percent. If corporate social responsibility is not adequately brought into the framework and people are not encouraged to reinvest into society to keep the whole system afloat and moving in the right direction, the direction is bound to go north!

The founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Martin Schwab, once said “in the new world it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it is the fast fish which eats the slow fish”. We have to learn and the younger generation has to equip itself with that mind-set.

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Summary of Roundtable 5 by Dr. Liselotte Odgaard, Associate Professor, RDDC, CopenhagenThe fifth roundtable centered on regional cultural diffusion and collaboration. The thrust of valuable discussions remained on the human element of collaboration, people-centered policies and their dividends; tracking historic traits of regional cooperation for a better tomorrow; and strengthening strategic relations through government-company relations and development.

A vigorous debate was generated about cultural democracy as an idea to help ameliorate conflict. This involves recognizing the qualities inherent in every culture and respect between cultures regardless of their ethnicity, race, and other potentially divisive characteristics. The notion of people-to-people contact has to be understood properly because it can both be a source of conflict and cooperation. Because people have less exposure to other cultures and lack proper knowledge, it is imperative for extensive cultural links within the region.

There have been discussions on cultural appropriation and intellectual property rights and the countries in this region could be described as state nations rather than nation states. This means that borders in this region have been externally imposed and from that, starting point nations were created. One of the discussants even pointed out that South Asia has been quite successful in establishing unions from very diverse cultures and on the basis of artificial borders, such as India and Pakistan respectively. It would therefore be useful to focus more on promoting trade based on mutual cultural respect instead of seeking further political unions between these countries.

The role of political leadership, media and education, and the empowerment of wo-men are other significant issues related to cultural diffusion. Different views came into light during discussions on them.

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Closing Remarks by Colonel Nicolas Teodors Viecherts, Head of RDDC Delegation

Closing Session. Col. Nicolas Teodors Viecherts, RDDC during his closing speech. (NUST Archive, 2016).

I would like to thank NUST, all the eminent speakers and participants, and worthy guests for their participation in this international Conference. I hope you have found the last two days valuable and educational. At this conference, we have been asking you to identify areas of common ground and to contribute with your knowledge and experiences with regard to regional connectivity, focusing on peace, growth, and empowerment. It has been the ambition of the Royal Danish Defence College to facilitate a forum for new ideas and different perceptions between fellow scholars and practitioners with the aim of influencing policy makers with our ideas.

During this Conference, Denmark has been mentioned a few times as a country that gave up on war with our neighbors as we started losing them. During the same time period, Denmark has grown into a rich and very peaceful country – one of the richest in the world. It is a good story because it is true, but following the same argument, you can also deduce that if you are a strong country and you think you can win wars, you will still have this option of going to war. Thus, my point here is not to recommend offensive wars to anybody but to emphasize that in today’s still more globalized and interdependent world, even the strong will eventually lose if they choose to start a war.

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However, the absence of war is at best only what some would call negative peace – a situation in which you are not in imminent danger but at the same time far from a prosperous future. Positive peace or real peace demands that neighbors trust each other and are dependent on each other. In my opinion, a state of negative peace rules this region and that is not a good thing. My next question and self-answer is dedicated to the students present here today at the conference and especially the students present yesterday when tempers rose a little high.

I would like to pose this question here about how a positive peace may be promoted? Here I will mention some of the informal rules implemented to promote bilateral talks. I have been an observer of some of these bilateral talks between Pakistan and India and would render a little advice here from these talks, which I think is very useful: focus on areas of cooperation even if this means putting larger conflicts aside, at least, initially. Without this ability, you will not get anywhere; if you are not willing to compromise in any way whatsoever, everybody is just wasting their time; watch out for the tendency to feel that you know exactly whom the other fellow is and what he wants. And even if you do know, use that knowledge and insight to understand his perspective; and this rule is said with a smile, i.e., if the other side has a really good argument that is difficult to counter and get around and with the potential to create a negative or not fruitful atmosphere, just say, “Well, I do not see it like that”.

At the end of this Conference, it is my hope that new connections and new lines of communication have been established over the last two days and that they will be kept open and frequently used in the future. Lastly, I will take the opportunity to thank Rector NUST Lieutenant General (R) Naweed Zaman as well as NUST GTTN, Mr. Amer Hashmi, Brigadier Amir Yaqub and their team of officers and talented students for designing and executing this seminar.

Closing Remarks by Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President GTTNThe joint NUST GTTN and RDDC Conference has successfully come to an end. These two days have seen high quality discussion on regional connectivity and the Chairs of the five roundtables have shared some very useful themes and recommen-dations during this closing session. I am grateful to the eminent experts, guests, faculty, students, and a special guest who is with us today travelling all the way from Beijing to Bahrain, to Washington DC and now to Islamabad, Dr. Ebtesam Alketbi, the President of Emirates Policy Centre, UAE, and who is an embodiment of women empowerment. Dr. Ebtesam is the first female President of a think tank in the UAE, and it is indeed an honor for us.

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This Conference has presented a comprehensive coverage of various aspects of regional integration. Through dynamic deliberations of more than thirty speakers over the last sixteen hours, we got better understanding and observation of international merit and law, focused on the maturing issues within our geographical location. Concerns have been raised on those conflicts and situations where laws and organizations have failed to function. Many problems keep prevailing within this region including terrorism, regional conflicts, poverty, poor economic integration and regional trade services, meagre infrastructure, weak planning, growth and maintenance, failing cities, unplanned urbanization and industrial development, and inept water management.

Moving from identification towards solutions, the participants have talked about how connectivity can bring the people of these countries together. The basic ingredient to achieve this purpose, however, will always be the political so that the old conflicts and problems are surmounted, as there are cases of governments being unable to deliver and therefore people taking matters into their own hands. While these problems will not go away soon, universities, think tanks, and policy centers will continue seeking avenues for engagement with policy makers, the private sector, civil society, and informed sections of the public. The public debate about critical challenges will thus continue to promote scholarly and evidence-based information.

For instance, during a previously held international event, we came across two ideas that could be implemented via the GTTN platform. At the Beijing Forum Islamabad – 2016, co-organized by us, former federal minister, Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, had presented a useful suggestion of carving out a roadshow for the CPEC project and establishing a formal authority. This recommendation was shared with the concerned authorities through the proceedings of the conference and we are already witnessing them bringing change. Another idea of establishing a Kashmir research center at GTTN proposed by our senior members and scholars has also been well received, and will be discussed during the upcoming meeting of GTTN Board of Directors. Likewise, Dr. Akram Sheikh, Professor Emeritus NUST and Co-Chair GTTN, shared Denmark’s experience of managing issues relating to water and environment and proposed that GTTN must collaborate with organizations such as RDDC, to design mutually beneficial solutions for Pakistan in these areas.

A new era of change is in the offing and the world in 2030 will certainly be a different one. With a focus, particularly on the U.S., Europe, and Asia, I think a to-do for this forum will be to ascertain who the rising and leading powers of the world will be. The international environment is in constant flux and there is perpetual uncertainty. So, forums such as this one will definitely be helpful in generating substantial debates and offering viable solutions.

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I thank RDDC for co-planning and co-sponsoring this event with us, participants and speakers, the NUST faculty and administration, the GTTN team, the Embassy of Denmark in Islamabad and the Ambassador, the delegates from Afghanistan, worthy guests from here and all over Pakistan, the students’ organizing committee, who have done a commendable job as always, and our Rector NUST for his participation and continued support.

Vote of Thanks by Lieutenant General (R) Naweed Zaman, Rector NUST & Co-Chair GTTNI take this opportunity to thank the eminent guests, delegates, participants, students, and also the Royal Danish Defence College for co-organizing with us this Conference on a very important topic. In my view, South Asia is one of the few remaining regions in the world that so far has not connected or gelled together politically, socially, and economically.

We are grateful to Mr. Yasini and his team from Afghanistan; General Daya Ratnayake – the former Chief of Sri Lankan Army; Dr. Ebtisam from the UAE; and all the participants, especially those who flew in from other cities – Lieutenant General (R) Tariq Waseem Ghazi from Karachi; Brigadier (R) Agha Ahmad Gul from Quetta, Dr. Attiya Inayatullah who was supposed to be in the U.S. right now but has specially joined us, and Mr. Kamran Lashari and Lieutenant General (R) Sikander from Lahore. Also, I would like to thank NUST GTTN President Amer Hashmi and his team for organizing this and making it so productive. I hope that the young team enjoyed the discussions and gained some useful insights because these are very rare occasions, which always introduce valuable perspectives and ideas on pertinent issues. I am confident that all those who have attended this Seminar will have gained a sufficient intellectual and strategic takeaway for turning this region into a peaceful hub of growth and development.

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Chairs and Speakers – In order of appearance

Mr. Amer Hashmi is a global strategist & entrepreneur, typical of the current innovation-based knowledge economy. Mr. Hashmi is a graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government’s prestigious Leadership Program on ‘Innovation for Economic Development’. Mr. Hashmi is currently Advisor and Chief Strategy Officer at NUST & President of the NUST Global Think Tank Network, Islamabad, Pakistan. In this capacity, Mr. Hashmi has played a leading role in formulating a comprehensive strategy for realizing the five key strategic thrusts, i.e., excellence in teaching and education; focus on research; spirit of enterprise; internationalization of higher education and a global perspective; and a positive impact on society.

Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman, HI (M), (R), was commissioned in 1980, having won the coveted Sword of Honour. The General is a graduate of Command and Staff College Camberley, UK, National Defence University, Islamabad and Royal College of Defence Studies, UK. Has held varied command and staff appointments, which include command of a Brigade and Division, both in operational areas. On being promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, he was appointed Military Secretary at General Headquarters where he was responsible for Human Resource Management of Army officers’ cadre. Later, he commanded a corps before retiring. Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman, HI (M), (R) assumed the responsibilities of Rector National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in November 2016.

His Excellency Ole Thonke has taken charge as Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan in August this year. He was the Ambassador of Denmark to Bolivia before this posting. He has also served as Deputy Head of Mission in Kenya. He worked as First Secretary in Benin and on other key positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Copenhagen. He was decorated in 2013 as Knight of the Order of Dannebrog, Denmark. He is an economist and has a strong understanding of and insight into international trade, political relations, and bilateral ties between Denmark and other countries.

General Ehsan-ul-Haq (R) is former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) of Pakistan. After his retirement, in 2007, General Ehsan has been engaged in number of corporate, intellectual and humanitarian activities. He is also a frequent speaker in international forums, reputed think tanks, and universities on geopolitical, defence and security issues. In recognition of his meritorious services, he was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Military) by the government of Pakistan. He is also the recipient of Chevalier de la Legion d’ Honneur from the French government and the King Abdul Aziz Medal of Excellence from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem Ghazi (R) is the former Defence Secretary of Pakistan (2005 – 2007) and has an MSc degree in War Studies from the University of Islamabad. General Ghazi served on key operational, command, policy formulation, crisis management and leadership training appointments. He has trained with the Australian and Canadian militaries, and has led a multi-national United Nations Peacekeeping Mission. He was Commandant of the two top officers’ training institutions: the Staff College, Quetta, and the National Defence College, Islamabad. Presently, he serves on the Board of Habib University and The Kidney Centre. A recipient of Sword of Honour, two international and fifteen service awards, he has been conferred Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Military) by the President for meritorious services.

General Daya Ratnayake (R) was educated at Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. Upon commissioning, he followed the Commando Officers Course, Infantry Young Officers Course, Battalion Support Weapon Course, Junior Command and Senior Command Courses in India, Governance and Management of Defence Course at Cranfield University, UK, Higher Level Security Studies Diploma Course and Advanced Communication Skills Course in Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He also graduated from Defence Service Command and Staff College, Bangladesh, National Defence University, China and Army Intelligence School, Fort Huachuca, Arizona, USA.

Major Steen Kjaergaard, is a Military Analyst at the Royal Danish Defense College (RDDC), Institute for Strategy. His field of research is International law, Strategy and intra-state conflicts. His military background is in Armored Recce, Mechanized Infantry and Intelligence. The Major is an external lecturer to the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, in San Remo, Italy and the Norwegian Center for Human Rights (NCHR).

Brigadier Mujahid Alam (R) has extensive experience of over 40 years of working in United Nations, diplomatic, government, and military jobs. He has served as Principal Staff Officer to the Defense Minister in the Government of Pakistan and as Military Attaché for Pakistan to the United Kingdom with concurrent accreditation to Sweden. He served with the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC as Director and Principal Political Affairs Officer for seven years and in Kosovo as Senior Civil Affairs Officer for three years. After retiring from the Pakistan Army, he joined the United Nations fulltime in 1999. He holds a Master’s (MSc) Degree in War Studies and a Diploma in French Language. He has good expertise in strategic leadership, senior management, representation at high level and program management both in international and national arenas in very challenging environments. Presently he is the Principal of Lawrence College Gora Galli (LCGG) Murree.

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Mr. Humayun Gauhar is an experienced journalist, editor-in-chief of Blue Chip Magazine and the founding publisher and President of ‘SOUTH’, an international monthly magazine. He is also the Managing Director of the Third World Foundation for Social and Economic Studies, publishers of the Third World Quarterly, as well as of Third World Media Limited that co-published The Guardian Third World Review in collaboration with The Guardian, London. He is lead op-ed columnist of ‘The Nation’, Pakistan and has also co-edited a book with Mr. Bruno Kriesky, the late Chancellor of Austria.

Mr. Owais Ahmed Ghani is amongst Pakistan’s most eminent and respected personalities. He holds the honor of being one of the only three people in Pakistan’s history who held the Governorship of two provinces. He is a mechanical engineer with 28 years of professional experience in industrial equipment engineering industry. He was also appointed as the Governor of Baluchistan province from 2003 to 2008 and oversaw a difficult period of the province’s recent political history. He then served as Governor of KPK province from 2008 to 2011 during which intensive counter-insurgency operations were launched to clear Swat & FATA of anti-Pakistan militants.

Dr. Attiya Inayatullah is the Chairperson of “Rehnuma for Social Development”. She is an expert and politician from Pakistan, and has served as Minister of Women Development, Social Welfare and Special Education and as Minister of State for Population Welfare. She holds a PhD in Demographics and was the elected member of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1985, 1988, 2002, and 2008 on reserved seats for women.

Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani received his doctorate in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. Currently Dr. Gilani heads Gallup Pakistan, which specializes in opinion and marketing research. Gallup Pakistan under the Chairmanship of Dr. Gilani was the pioneer in Media Research in Pakistan launching the 1st TV Rating service in the country. He is also serving as part of a seven-member Board of Gallup International and Chairs Expert Group on Opinion Research. Dr. Gilani has headed a number of research projects in the field of social and economic development, strategic studies, and political behavior. He served as Project Director at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (1979-81), and co-chaired the crisis and conflict Analysis Team at the Institute of Strategic Studies (1984-93). He has also served as Research Adviser to the National Defence College. Currently Dr. Gilani is an honorary Senior Fellow at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics Islamabad. He is a former member of the Board of Governors of Bahria University.

Lieutenant General Muhammad Masood Aslam (R) Hilal e Imtiaz, Sitara e Jurrat (SJ), was commissioned in one of the oldest regiments of Pakistan infantry in November 1971. He is leading a retired life in Islamabad and remains actively involved with numerous think tanks in Pakistan and abroad. He has a special expertise in

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countering militancy, violent extremism and undertaking rehabilitative measures to ensure lasting peace. Currently he is Senior Fellow of the NUST Global Think Tank Network, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah (R) hails from Hoti village in Mardan district. He received his education in Mardan and Karachi before joining the Army. During his Army career, he has mostly worked in Baluchistan and Azad Kashmir. After his retirement, he became the Secretary for Home and Tribal Affairs in North West Frontier Province (NWFP). When in 2003 situation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) deteriorated, he was made Secretary Security for the areas. During his tenure, the government launched operations in FATA in connection with the war on terror against Al-Qaeda and Taliban. As a result of these operations, some high-profile militants were also nabbed. He worked on this post for a little more than two years.

Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain is a renowned professor, analyst, television personality, former anchor and radio personality who served at Quaid-i-Azam University for 36 years and has been serving at the National Defense University, Islamabad after rejoining in 2012. He was the executive director at Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) from 2005–2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dr. Rifaat is currently the Head of Department of Government & Public Policy in School of Social Sciences & Humanities in National University of Sciences & Technology and holds a PhD in International Studies from the University of Denver, Colorado, USA.

Ms. Mona Kanwal Sheikh is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). She is an expert on the Pakistani Taliban, and is presently conducting research on militant Islamism in Pakistan and particularly on the recruitment and communications materials of the Pakistani Taliban. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Copenhagen. She has been awarded two prestigious elite research prizes (2007, 2012) for her work on the Pakistani Taliban by the Danish Ministry of Science.

Air Commodore Ghulam Mujaddid is Acting Dean, Faculty of Aero Space Sciences & Strategic Studies at Air University. He got his Commission in GD (Pilot) Branch of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on 19 Oct 1978 and served as fighter pilot, flying front line aircraft in the PAF. He has been Instructor Pilot at the Combat Commanders School; Squadron Commander, Flying Wing Commander and Base Commander apart from serving as Director Operations, Assistant Chief of Air Staff (Personnel-Airman and Civilians), and PSO to Chief of the Air Staff at the Air Headquarters. Air Commodore Ghulam has three MSc Degrees in Defence and Strategic Studies - two from Quaid e Azam University (DSS and NDC) and one from University of Karachi (Air War College). He is also a PhD Candidate at Quaid e Azam University,

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Islamabad and currently pursuing research/academic career in Strategic Studies and International Relations.

Dr. Shoaib Suddle is regarded as a leading police and justice sector reform specialist in South Asia. He has an MSc (Econ.) in criminology and a PhD in white-collar crime from Cardiff University (Wales, UK), MSc (Physics) from Government College Lahore, and an LLB from the University of the Punjab. His doctoral thesis was on tax evasion. Dr. Shoaib Suddle is the author of several publications on justice sector issues published both in Pakistan and abroad. He is regularly invited to speak at various international conferences around the world.

Brigadier Agha Ahmad Gul (R) was born in Quetta in 1947. After graduation, he joined the Pakistan Army and was commissioned in 1968. During his service, spanning over 34 years, he took part in combat in the 1971 War, earned BSc (Honors) from Command and Staff College, Quetta and Master’s Degree in War Studies and later in Defence and Strategic Studies from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad. He is an honor graduate from a U.S. Army School in Oklahoma, in the Officer Advanced Course. He has been on the faculty of the Army’s School of Artillery, Command & Staff College, Quetta, and National Defence University, Islamabad. He also commanded the Joint Services Staff College. He has been Director Operations and Intelligence in Joint Staff Headquarters. He was awarded the Commendation Card by Chairman Joint Chief of Staff ’s Committee and Sitara-a-Imtiaz by the President of Pakistan.

Major General Ziauddin Najam (R), Hilal e Imtiaz (Military), has 36 Years of multifarious experience in Command, Staff and Instructional appointments in Pakistan Army and Higher Educational Outfit. Currently he is Rector of NUML University and he is the President of Confucius Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan. He has also served as Director General ESSRA, Rawalpindi, Pakistan from Feb 2013 to July 2015. Maj Gen Ziauddin Najam has been the General Officer Commanding Strategic Force South, Headquarters from July 2007 to Aug 2009.

Mr. Hamid Ali Khan is Director of Counter Terrorism at South Asian Strategic Stability Institute (SASSI), Islamabad. In 2014, the Prime Minister of Pakistan appointed Mr. Hamid Ali Khan as the National Coordinator to the National Counter-Terrorism Authority. He served in NACTA as the fulltime chief of the counterterrorism body. He was also instrumental to the 20-point National Action Plan. His previous assignment was secretary of Capital Administration and Development Division. Mr. Hamid Khan has previously served at various positions in the government that have directly or indirectly dealt with counterterrorism. Prior to joining the civil service, Mr. Hamid Ali Khan has served for 12 years at various field and staff appointments in the Pakistan Navy. He graduated from the National Defence University and holds a Master’s Degree in Defense and Strategic Studies.

Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari has 28-years’ experience in the local & international financial Markets, and through his extensive market knowledge he developed KASB

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into a full-scale financial services company. In 1978 he joined his family business at the Karachi Stock Exchange. Nasir has also served as a Director of the Karachi Stock Exchange (Guarantee) Ltd, where he successfully initiated an automated trading system. He has also been involved in technology infrastructure and investment business for over 5 years. Nasir currently holds the office of Chairman KASB Group/KASB Bank Ltd. He has also held the prestigious position in the government of Sindh as Chairman, Sindh Privatization Commission.

Mr. Sayed Mahdi Munadi joined the Center for Strategic Studies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Afghanistan as researcher in 2013. He is currently the head of Research and responsible for regional cooperation and integration in South and Central Asia. Mr. Munadi holds a BA and an MA in Politics and International Relations from Kabul University. Mr. Munadi is the author of several research and analytical articles with particular focus on Afghanistan’s regional integration, which have been published in academic journals and as book-chapters. Mr. Munadi is also a university lecturer currently teaching modules on Principles of International Relations and other related issues at a number of private Afghan universities in Kabul.

Major General Muhammad Afzal, Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) has been the Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Works Organization since September 2013. He holds a Master’s Degrees in Strategic Studies and Geotechnical Engineering. An ardent and adept professional, he possesses rich experience and skill in conception, planning, and management of multi-dimensional mega infrastructure development projects with a special flair for Public Private Partnership and Build Operate and Transfer Regime projects and is the sole architect of key mega initiatives relating to the CPEC Framework. He is spearheading implementation of CPEC through his visionary leadership traits and hands-on approach in the remotest parts of Baluchistan along Western Route as well as some key infrastructure development projects along Eastern Route of CPEC.

Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar is a PhD Candidate. Dissertation title: “Understanding Parental Aspirations for Girls’ Schooling in insecure contexts: A case study of Afghanistan”- University of Sydney/ Sydney Australia. He received his B.Ed. degree from Peshawar College of Education, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He also holds a master’s degree in International Relations from University of Peshawar. He has been invited as guest speaker to many universities. He is a senior advisor who advises the Minister on policy-related issues in the education sector and manages the policy development forum ensuring maximum stakeholder participation in policy development processes.

Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani is the founder and CEO of Reenergia and Secur Global, and a partner in Geopolicity and RIZ Consulting. Concurrently, he is Advisor to United Office for Project Services and Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, and a Knowledge Builder and Advisor to the Board of Insaan. He is an acknowledged development expert, and is presently involved in renewable energy, fragile and post- conflict

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states, transport and logistics, trade facilitation, connectivity, and community-driven development. His experience spans more than twenty-four countries over 30 years.

Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali is a prolific researcher and academician. He has over 100 publications to his credit in national and international conferences & refereed journals. He has been awarded the gold medal by the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and COMSTECH for IT research; the Presidents’ Gold medal for best NUST researcher of the year 2005 and “Distinguished Scientists of the Year 2006” award by the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. So far, over 100 Pakistani scientists have been given these awards. Dr. Arshad is also the recipient of President’s Pride of Performance in IT research and Sitara-e-Imtiaz by the government of Pakistan.

Dr. Shahid Mahmud holds a Master’s degree in Defense and Strategic Studies from National Defence University Islamabad, along with more than 25 years of professional experience in the fields of IT and Communications. He has served on various Federal committees of the Government of Pakistan addressing the formulation and implementation of the national telecom and IT policy, including the eighth and ninth five-year plans. He was the founding Director of Paktel, Indus Vision, Pak Globalstar (Pvt) Ltd., SHOA (Pvt) Ltd. and Shaheen Pay TV (Pvt) Ltd.

Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan is the Principal and Dean, School of Social Sciences & Humanities, NUST as well as a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Government of Pakistan. He has recently been elected as member of the Board of Trustees of the International Islamic University, Islamabad. He has been the Special Secretary Finance/Director General, Debt Office and Economic Advisor Ministry of Finance, Islamabad for eleven years (1998-2009).

Mr. Tom Børsen is associate professor at the Department of Development and Planning and a Study Director at the School of Engineering and Science, Aalborg University Copenhagen. He is a board member and treasurer of the Danish National Pugwash Group (Nobel Peace Prize 1995). His research focuses on the social responsibility of different actors (companies, universities, governmental organizations, and individuals). He is currently, with Pakistani research partners, preparing a case study of Pakistani State Oil and their corporate social responsibility activities.

Mr. Amjad Naveed holds a PhD degree in Economics and is currently working as a postdoc research fellow at the Department of Business and Economics, University of Southern Denmark. His research work has primarily focused on regional economic development, international economics, R&D knowledge spillovers, regional labor mobility and job growth and labor productivity growth. He has published several articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals. His current work comprises research on long- and short-run trends for intermediate city regions in Europe and spatial mobility patterns of creative professionals in Denmark.

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Dr. Liselotte Odgaard is associate professor at the Institute for Military History and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College. She has published numerous articles, edited books, and written three monographs on security in the Asia-Pacific, China’s growing influence on international relations, and strategic theory and practice. She has been a visiting professor at institutions such as Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and The Norwegian Nobel Institute. Her latest monograph was “China and Coexistence: Beijing’s National Security Strategy for the 21st Century” (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press 2012).

Dr. Uxi Mufti is a Pakistani folklorist, social scientist, cultural expert of repute and author of many books including “Measuring the Intangible”. He is the founder of Lok Virsa, The National Heritage Museum, Islamabad – a project that has spanned over forty years of labor of love in detail and sensitivity. His work has been recognized internationally through many national and International awards including the Sitar-e-Imtiaz and the Asia Prize for Culture 2006, Japan.

Mr. Kamran Lashari received his LLB degree from Punjab University and has also done MSc (Public Administration) from Virginia Common Wealth University, Richmond – USA. From 2003 to 2008, as Chairman CDA he brought a new look to the city of Islamabad as per the Master Plan. He developed new roads, dualization of roads, new bridges, under passes including 7th & 9th Avenues and Zero Point flyover, etc. He was appointed as Director General on December 2012 of the newly created Authority for the Old Lahore, i.e., Walled City Lahore Authority. Currently he is working on the Rehabilitation and Restoration work of the Old City.

Mr. Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt is associate professor in development and international relations at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has done consultancies for UNESCO, the World Bank, the Irish Development Agency and Danida – his latest project financed by Danida is related to health in education in Bhutan. He has extensive research experience from Southeast Asia, East and South Asia, and the Middle East – latest involvement is an EU-financed project about India’s Foreign Policy.

Col. Nicolas T. Veicherts is a cavalry officer commissioned in 1992 to the Danish Guard Hussars Regiment, where he had various line duties in reconnaissance units until 2001. He then attended the Danish Army’s Advanced Operations Course, followed by the Joint General Staff Course and was promoted to major in 2004. From 2004 to 2006, he served as a military adviser to the Danish Institute for International Studies, a civilian research institution, after which he joined the Institute for Strategy at the Danish Defence College. In 2010 he was promoted to colonel and assigned as the first Danish Defence attaché to Pakistan, where he served until 2012. Since then he has been the director of the Institute for Languages and Cultures at the Royal Danish Defence College.

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Conference Program

RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International SeminarPeace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity

Tuesday 29 Nov, 2016Time Activity Venue1915 Pickup – Departure for NUST (Guests

staying in Serena Hotel)2000 - 2130 Icebreaker & Dinner NUST Faculty Cafeteria

DAY – 1Wednesday 30 Nov., 2016

Time Activity Venue0830 Pickup – Departure for NUST (Guests

staying in Serena Hotel)Hotel Serena

0900 - 0950 Registration for the Seminar Jinnah Auditorium

Time Speaker Country Activity VenueInaugural Session

1000 - 1010 Mr. Amer Hashmi, Advisor NUST & President NUST GTTN

Pakistan Welcome Remarks

Jinnah Auditorium

1010 - 1015 Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman (R), HI (M), Rector NUST

Pakistan Opening Address

“

1015 - 1030 H.E. Ole Thonke, Ambassador of Denmark to Pakistan

Denmark Opening Address

“

1030 - 1050 General Ehsan Ul Haq (R), NI (M)Former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC)

Pakistan Address by the Guest of Honor

“

1050 - 1055 Group Photograph

“

1100 - 1145 Tea/Coffee Break CIPS Dining Hall

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Session 1 – Plenary 1Topic: UN Peacekeeping and International Humanitarian Law

Time Speaker Country Activity Venue1200-1210 Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem

Ghazi (R), Former Defence Secretary

Pakistan Chair: Introductory Remarks

Jinnah Auditorium

1210-1230 Topic: Developing a Social Discourse on Peacebuilding in the Region Speaker: General Daya Ratnayake (R), Ex-Chief of Army Staff, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Keynote “

1235-1255 Topic: International Humanitarian Law as preventive force in capacity building Speaker: Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC

Denmark Keynote “

1300-1320 Topic: The Contours of UN Peacekeeping: Vision for Tomorrow Speaker: Brigadier Mujahid Alam (R), Senior Fellow NUST GTTN & Principal Lawrence College

Pakistan Keynote “

1320-1400 Discussion Session 1400-1410 Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem

Ghazi (R), Former Defence Secretary

Pakistan Wrap up by the Chair

“

1410-1510 Working Lunch CIPSDining Hall

Session 2 – Plenary 2Topic: Regional Reconciliation through Social Empowerment

Time Speaker Country Activity Venue1515-1525 Mr. Humayun Gauhar, Senior Fellow,

NUST GTTN Pakistan Chair:

Introductory remarks

Jinnah Auditorium

1525-1545 Topic: Regional Organizations for Peace & DevelopmentSpeaker: Mr. Owais Ghani, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN


1545-1605 Topic: Seeking Common Grounds for Social Inclusion Speaker: Dr. Attiya Inayatullah Chairperson, Rehnuma for Social Development


1605-1625 Topic: Participatory Development and Regional Transformation Speaker: Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, Chief Executive Officer, Gallup Pakistan

- Keynote “

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1625-1715 Discussion Session “1715-1725 Mr. Humayun Gauhar, Senior Fellow,

NUST GTTNPakistan Wrap up by

the Chair“

2030-2200 Conference Dinner Faculty Cafeteria

DAY – 2Thursday 01 Dec, 2016

Time Activity Venue

0900 Pickup Time – Departure to NUST (Guests staying in Serena Hotel)

Hotel Serena

Roundtables1000-1200 hours

Roundtable 1Venue: Board Room

Roundtable 2Venue: Conference Room 1

Countering Militancy, Insurgencies, and Terrorist Groups in Afghanistan.

Sharing Experiences on Border Management and Frontier Policing: Afghanistan, Iran & Pakistan.

Chairs: Lieutenant General Masood Aslam (R), Senior Fellow, NUST GTTNInitiators: Topic: The Spill-overs of Afghan Situation: Challenges and Opportunities Speaker: Brigadier Mahmood Shah (R)

Topic: The Role of Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran Troika for Establishing Regional StabilitySpeaker: Dr. Syed Rifaat Hussain, HoD Government & Public Policy, S3H - NUST

Topic: Understanding in order to counter religious justifications of, and mobilization to, violence. Speaker: Ms. Mona Kanwal Sheikh, Senior Researcher Danish Institute for International Studies

Topic: Contemporary Challenges for Regional Peace and the Way ForwardSpeaker: Air Commodore Ghulam Mujaddid (R), Acting Dean, Faculty of Aero Space Sciences & Strategic Studies, Air University

Chair: Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN Initiators: Topic: Effective Regional Cross Border Administration - Policy ImperativesSpeaker: Brigadier Agha Ahmad Gul (R), Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN

Topic: Proposal for Present & Future of Regional Border Management Speaker: Major General Ziauddin Najam (R), Rector NUML & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN

Topic: International Humanitarian Law in Armed ForcesSpeaker: Major Steen Kjaergaard, Military Analyst, RDDC

Topic: Political Dimensions of Policing the Borders: Optimizing the Opportunities Speaker: Mr. Hamid Ali Khan, Director General Counter Terrorism SASSI

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Participants:

• Lieutenant General Tariq Waseem Ghazi (R), Former Defence Secretary

• Major General Abid Rafique, General Officer Commanding Special Security Division

• Dr. M. Bilal Khan, Principal/Dean USPCAS-E

• Dr. Tughral Yamin, Associate Dean CIPS• Mr. Ali Shah, Head of Research, NUST

GTTN• Atia Ali Kazmi, Senior Research & Policy

Analyst, NUST GTTN • Mr. Zameer Awan, Deputy Director Chinese

Study Center, NUST • Brigadier Ishaq Ahmed (R), Director

International Security & Intelligence SASSI • Dr. Shabana Fayyaz, Assistant Professor

Defence & Strategic Studies, QAU• Mr. Syed Muhammad Ali, SPD• Mr. Abdullah Khan, Managing Director

PICSS• Mr. Umar Farooq Khan, Assistant Research

Officer, Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)

• Mr. Raza Shah, PTV World• Ms. Rahima Popalzai, International

Relations Lecturer at University of Afghanistan

• Mr. Halimullah Kousary, Researcher at Center for Violence and Peace Studies

• Col. Kim Schmidt, Danish DA in Islamabad• Ms. Liselotte Odgaard, Associate Professor,

RDDC• Mr. Andreas Fierro, Referent, RDDC

Participants:

• Major General Mushtaq Ahmed Faisal, HI(M), DG NLC

• Mr. Sayed Mahdi Munadi, Researcher at Center for Strategic Studies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan

• Dr. Zakia Adeli, Lecturer at Kateb University

• Mr. Mohammad Daad Serweri, Political Officer at the Danish Embassy in Kabul

• Ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand, Institute of Policy Studies

• Mr. Tariq Maood, Inspector General of Police, Islamabad

• Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani, CEO Reenergia Enhar, Pakistan and Secure Global (SG)

• Mr. Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark

• Col. Kim Poulsen, Danish DA in Kabul

• Mr. Christian Hansen, Research Referent, RDDC

• Mr. David Vestenskov, Consultant, RDDC

• Mr. Amjad Naveed, Postdoc University of Southern Denmark

• Mr. Tom Børsen, Associate Professor Aalborg University, Denmark

Time Activity Venue1200 - 1230 Coffee break Respective Venue

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Roundtables1230-1430 hours


Roundtable 4Venue: Board Room


Forecasting the Future: Regional Cooperation for Initiating Successful and Relevant Commercial Projects in Afghanistan.

Promoting Economic Growth and Creating Social Value through Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan.

Cultural Diffusion and Collaboration in the Region.

Chair: Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari, Chairman of KASB Corporation LimitedInitiators: Topic: The Prospects of B2B (Business to Business) Regional Cooperation: The Case of Afghanistan Speaker: Sayed Mahdi Munadi, Head of Research, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Afghanistan

Topic: Bridging the Divide: Identifying Key Sectors for Development in AfghanistanSpeaker: Major General Muhammad Afzal, HI(M), DG FWO

Topic: TAPI Pipeline: A Recipe for Peace or Instability?Speaker: Dr. Attaullah Wahidyar, Senior Advisor to Ministry of Education

Topic: Business Strategy in Emerging Markets and Developing CountriesSpeaker: Mr. Amer Zafar Durrani, CEO Reenergia Enhar, Pakistan and Secure Global (SG)

Chair: Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali, Executive Director Higher Education Commission of PakistanInitiators:Topic: Replicating the Global Culture of Successful Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Pakistan Speaker: Dr. Shahid Mahmud, CEO Interactive Group & Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN

Topic: Maximizing the Potential of Foreign Investments in Pakistan for a Regional Win-WinSpeaker: Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Principal S3H & Resident Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN

Topic: CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in PakistanSpeaker: Dr. Tom Børsen, Associate Professor Aalborg University, Denmark

Topic: Regional Economic Growth, Knowledge Spillovers, Labor Productivity, Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Speaker: Dr. Amjad Naveed, Postdoc University of Southern Denmark

Chair: Dr. Liselotte Odgaard, Associate Professor, RDDCInitiators: Topic: The Human Element of Regional Growth: People-Centric Policies and their Dividends Speaker: Dr. Uxi Mufti, Social Scientist & Cultural Consultant

Topic: Tracking Historic Traits of Regional Cooperation for a Better TomorrowSpeaker: Mr. Kamran Lashari, Director General at Walled City of Lahore Authority

Topic: Strengthening Strategic Relations through Government Company Relations and DevelopmentSpeaker: Dr. Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, Denmark

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Participants:

• Mr. Omer Ghani, South Asia Regional Director, Enclude Solutions

• Mr. Qazi Azmat Isa, CEO, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF)

• Mr. Rashid Aziz, Former Senior Energy Specialist World Bank

• Dr. Naukhez Sarwar, Principal NBS

• Dr. Athar Maqsood Ahmed HoD Economic NBS

• Mr. Ali Shah, Head of Research, NUST GTTN

• Mr. Umar Farooq Khan, Assistant Research Officer, Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI)

• David Vestenskov, Consultant, RDDC

• Mr. Sayed Mahdi Munadi, Researcher at Center for Strategic Studies, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan

• Mr. Mohammad Daad Serweri, Political Officer at the Danish Embassy in Kabul

Participants:

• Dr. S. M. Hassan Zaidi, Principal SEECS

• Engr. Salman Absar, Dir CIE

• Mr. Zameer Awan, Deputy Director Chinese Study Center, NUST

• Brigadier M. Nadeem Aslam, Director Admin Heavy Industries Taxila

• Dr. Aamir Murad, Executive Director HR & OD, POF Wah

• Mr. Ather Imran, CEO Sybrid & President OPEN Islamabad

• Mr. Owais Anjum, CEO eMumba & Member OPEN Islamabad

• Mr. Muazzam Arsalan Bhatti, Founder & CEO Alfoze Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

• Ms. Rahima Popalzai, International Relations Lecturer at University of Afghanistan

• Col. Kim Schmidt, Danish DA in Islamabad

• Mr. Andreas Fierro, Referent, RDDC

Participants:

• Ambassador Syed Hasan Javed, Director CSC

• Ms. Maria Qadri, GM University Advancement Office, NUST

• Mr. Umar Akhtar, Research Fellow, NUST GTTN

• Dr. Asma Shakir Khawaja, Assistant Professor, FCS - NDU

• Ms. Puruesh Ch, Founder of Agahi Foundation

• Ms. Diana Barakzai, Chairperson Diana Afghan Social Foundation

• Mr. Halimullah Kousary, Researcher at Center for Violence and Peace Studies

• Dr. Zakia Adeli, Lecturer at Kateb University

• Col. Kim Poulsen, Danish DA in Kabul

• Mr. Christian Hansen, Referent, RDDC

1430-1530Lunch Break – CIPS Building Dining Hall

Closing Session1545-1745

Time Speaker Country Activity Venue1545 - 1600 Chair: Amb. Riaz

Khokhar, Senior Fellow, NUST GTTN

Pakistan Introductory remarks Jinnah Auditorium

1600 - 1610 Chair Roundtable 1 Wrap up Roundtable 1 “1610 - 1620 Chair Roundtable 2 Wrap up Roundtable 2 “1620 - 1630 Chair Roundtable 3 Wrap up Roundtable 2 “1630 - 1640 Chair Roundtable 4 Wrap up Roundtable 4 “1640 - 1650 Chair Roundtable 5 Wrap up Roundtable 5 “

100


1650 - 1700 Col. Nicolas Teodors Viecherts, RDDC

Denmark Closing Remarks/vote of thanks

“

1700 - 1710 Lieutenant General Naweed Zaman (R), HI (M), Rector NUST

Pakistan Closing Remarks/vote of thanks

“

1710 - 1715 Group Photo “1720 High-Tea CIPS

Building, Dining Hall

Guests’ Departure

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSNo 5 (b) 2017

RDDC-NUST GTTN Joint International Seminar:Peace, Growth and Empowerment:

Promoting Regional Connectivity

This report is based on the joint conference: Peace, Growth and Empowerment: Promoting Regional Connectivity that were held in Islamabad November-December 2016. The conference and the report have been developed in a cooperation between NUST Global Think Tank Network (GTTN) and the Royal Danish Defence College (RDDC) in the frame of the Danish Peace and Stabilization Fund. The report contains edited and reflected perspectives, analysis, and recommendations presented at the conference. A special focus at the conference was that a broader focus should be given to economic and trade aspects in order to identify measures and paths to initiate a process of peace, growth, and empowerment in the region of South Asia. Several innovative initiatives combining cooperation on security and economic cooperation is included in the content as observations or recommendations with the objective of reaching regional political decision makers, institutions, private companies, and researchers from the region as well as scholars from the international community in general with interest in the security and economic development of the region.

Promoting Security Cooperation andEconomic Connectivity in South Asia

Approaching Regional Coherence R

DD

C & N

UST Conference Proceedings

By David Vestenskov, Ali Shah, Atia Ali Kazmi & Christian Høj Hansen

ApproachingRegional

Coherence

approaching regional coherencefak.dk/biblioteket/publikationer/documents... · conference...

Documents