After bin Laden: US-Pakistan Relations

Date: Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Time: 5:30PM to 8PM

Place: Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, Manhattan

Free Admission

Cash bar and book signing: 5:30PM to 7PM
Presentation: 7PM to 8PM


Following the discovery of bin Laden in Pakistan, should the U.S. declare Pakistan a rogue state and cut off all aid, or maintain ties with Pakistan in order to complete the mission in Afghanistan?

The US has commonly resorted to the carrot and stick policy of dealing with Pakistan: funding Pakistan liberally when Pakistan has been important to the US interests, as in the 1980s and after 9/11; and punishing Pakistan by choking off aid when Pakistan has engaged in adventurism, as in the 1990s when it clandestinely pursued a nuclear program. So what are the more realistic options open to the US in influencing Pakistan to change its behavior?

While Pakistan has always talked about democracy it has nonetheless drifted toward extremism, even harboring terrorist networks as assets against both Afghanistan and India.  These issues are the basis of the essays in a new book Pakistan: From the Rhetoric of Democracy to the Rise of Militancy, and the subject of this discussion by four contributors, including the editor Ravi Kalia.

Co-sponsor: Rubin Museum of Art

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