Pakistan Security Challenges: Implications of the AFPAK Strategy

A Discussion with Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi

Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi is a noted Pakistani diplomat, academic and journalist who is also well informed on internal political developments in Pakistan. She served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States from 1994-1997 and again from 1999-2002, and then was Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK in London from 2003 to 2008. She was then appointed a Fellow at the Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She was the first Asian woman to be Editor of a national daily newspaper, at The Muslim, from 1987-1990, and then became founding Editor of The News International, another major English-language newspaper in Pakistan, from 1990-1993 and 1997-1999. Dr. Lodhi received her college degree and her PhD from the London School of Economics. She began teaching at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, and then returned to LSE to teach for five years from 1980-1985. Dr. Lodhi also served on the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Affairs from 2001 to 2008. She was a recipient of the 2002 Hilal-e-Imtiaz Presidential award for public service. She is the author of the essay collection, Pakistan’s Encounter with Democracy and the External Challenge (Vanguard, 1994). In 1994, Time Magazine cited Dr. Lodhi as one of 100 global pacesetters and leaders who would define the 21st century, and the only person from Pakistan on the list.

Ambassador Lodhi has long been an expert on Pakistan’s security decisions and on Pakistan’s relations with the United States and the West and is well known in Washington, DC. Her presentation at USIP will review the internal political and security problems that challenge Pakistan from the spread of Taliban influence and extremism, and the impact on Pakistan and its relations with Afghanistan and other neighbors of US and NATO operations in Afghanistan.