Islamabad: Pakistan is all set to host its first-ever security dialogue with an aim to define the country’s new strategic direction in line with the prime minister’s vision of peace, regional connectivity and development partnerships with the world.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will inaugurate the two-day (March 17-18) conference called Islamabad Security Dialogue and the Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa will be the keynote speaker on the second day of the conference in which top scholars and diplomats would also participate. The summit being held in Islamabad will be live-streamed to reach a wider audience.
The unique venture aims to bring together global and local intelligentsia to debate Pakistan’s critical national security issues, and generate ideas to work towards combined solutions to complex challenges. One of the key objectives of the forum is to include and engage the country’s influential research institutes in the policymaking on domestic and international issues. The idea of transforming the think tanks into policy hubs is to help make informed policy decisions. The dialogue also aims to help bridge the divide between university researchers and policymakers, organizers told Gulf News.
National Security Division (NSD) is organising the Islamabad Security Dialogue in collaboration with its advisory board comprising five leading think tanks including Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies (CASS), Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI), Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) and National Defence University (NDU)’s Institute of Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis (ISSRA).
Policy experts
The dialogue will bring current and former officials and local and global security and policy experts to discuss comprehensive dimensions of security, not only national security but also the economic, environmental and human security.
Some of the invited experts include former US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, director of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations Dr Hu Shisheng, Pakistan’s national security advisor Dr Moeed Yusuf, President of CASS Air Chief Marshal (R) Kaleem Saadat, commerce advisor Abdul Razak Dawood, international politics expert Miles Kahler, director of International Crisis Group’s Asia program Laurel Miller among others.
The Munich security conference inspired summit is envisioned as Pakistan’s leading intellectual platform to debate national and regional security challenges and contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflicts.
PM Khan will also launch the first of its kind advisory portal of the national security division to bridge the traditional gap between public intellectuals and policymakers. “The NSD portal will allow national think tanks and universities working on national security to directly offer policy recommendations to the government and can be pathbreaking in this regard” the official statement said.
