For Immediate Release: April 7, 2014
Contacts: Allison Sturma (202) 429-4175, asturma@usip.org  
Jackie Beilhart, (202) 687-9298, jb594@georgetown.edu

(Washington) – The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and Georgetown University Press (GU Press) are pleased to announce the publication of two seminal and timely volumes on insurgency and counterinsurgency in South Asia. Edited by Moeed Yusuf, the director of South Asia programs at USIP, Pakistan's Counterterrorism Challenge (GU Press/USIP Press) and Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia: Through a Peacebuilding Lens (USIP Press) challenge conventional wisdom on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations by offering perspectives from a wide group of South Asian scholars and policymakers.

Pakistan is the epicenter of international terrorism—home to militants attacking Afghanistan and the West and insurgents striking at the Pakistani state. Pakistan does not yet have a cohesive strategy against the Taliban, oscillating between pursuing talks and planning military operations. While many believe it is necessary to target the Taliban's stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, military force alone will not lead to stability.

In addition, significant challenges from armed insurgencies have plagued other South Asian countries, including Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Despite the seemingly intractable nature of these conflicts, the task at hand is to "grasp the context, jump in, time the intervention right, and ensure that these interventions have attractive enough incentives. This is no mean feat," Yusuf contends. "But we must continue thinking creatively, for the alternative is often the unacceptable resort to greater violence." Yusuf argues that counterterrorism is an aspect of a larger counterinsurgency strategy and that a broader analysis of both is necessary to achieve security in the region.

Pakistan's Counterterrorism Challenge (Georgetown University Press, April 2014) breaks new ground by approaching counterterrorism holistically, going beyond military tactics to consider the political, legal, financial, law enforcement and technological issues at play in counterterrorism operations in Pakistan. "The Pakistani government has approved a national counterterrorism strategy that takes an ambitious approach, but a holistic understanding of the problem is missing from policy and politics," says Yusuf.

Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia: Through a Peacebuilding Lens (United States Institute of Peace Press, May 2014) focuses on counterinsurgency in the larger South Asian region and explores how intrastate violence arises, transforms and ends. Case studies on Pakistan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka evaluate the success—or failure—of armed and nonviolent intervention into insurgencies, and offer lessons on state responses, political settlements, and missed opportunities for peace.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Moeed Yusuf is the director of South Asia Programs at the United States Institute of Peace. Prior to joining USIP, Yusuf was a fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Ranger Future at Boston University and concurrently a research fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is also coeditor of "South Asia 2060: Envisioning Regional Futures"(Anthem Press, 2013) and "Getting It Right in Afghanistan" (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2013).

"Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia: Through a Peacebuilding Lens"
United States Institute of Peace Press
May 2014 • ISBN: 978-1-60127-191-4
$24.95 (paperback) • 328 pp. • 6 x 9
Publicity Contact: Allison Sturma (202) 429-4175, asturma@usip.org  

"Pakistan's Counterterrorism Challenge"
Georgetown University Press
March 2014 • ISBN: 978-1-62616-045-3
$29.95 (paperback) • 272 pp. • 6 x 9
Publicity Contact: Jackie Beilhart, (202) 687-9298, jb594@georgetown.edu