Stimson has had a longstanding interest in nurturing talent and in networking a rising generation of strategic analysts in Pakistan and India. Our two core programming elements are sponsoring workshops on issues related to deterrence stability and nuclear risk reduction; and hosting a Visiting Fellows program. Stimson will re-launch its joint Indian-Pakistani Visiting Fellows program beginning in mid-2013, thanks to generous grant support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Visiting Fellowships
Stimson has re-launched the joint Indian-Pakistani fellowship program through its website initiative, South Asian Voices: Generation Why. This programming is supported through funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The time is ripe for a revival of joint visiting fellowships on national security for rising talent within civil society in Pakistan and India. Stimson will host pairs of Visiting Fellows – one from Pakistan and one from India – for a one-month fellowship. During this intensive fellowship, Visiting Fellows will work alongside each other while focusing on topics related to deterrence stability, confidence building, nuclear risk-reduction and regional security.
Prospective Pakistani and Indian visiting fellows are drawn from Generation Why’s roster of bloggers. Fellows will come from universities, non-governmental organizations, and electronic as well as print media outlets in Pakistan and India. These fellowships permit Indian and Pakistani analysts to work and live together, while engaging in a “crash course” on nuclear issues in Washington, DC. While in residence, Visiting Fellows attend programs at NGOs and academic centers, while visiting with government officials, military officers and Capitol Hill staffers.
Stimson was deeply involved in joint workshops held in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka during the 1990s and early 2000s to nurture and network rising talent, but funding for this initiative became difficult to secure. This program began in 1993 with private foundation support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Initially, Stimson Fellowships were directed at up-and-coming professors, print journalists, and NGO analysts. We believed that these fellowships would provide ripple effects – to students and newspaper readers, as well as to help promote the growth of NGOs devoted to problems of international security. Stimson’s very first Visiting Fellow was Rifaat Hussain from Quaid-i-Azam University. Rifaat has subsequently mentored a new generation of very capable strategic analysts.
Another example of the long-term impact of visiting fellowships is Raj Chengappa, who was a visiting fellow in 1995. Raj was then a beat reporter on national security issues for India Today, India’s equivalent of Time magazine. Raj had a special interest in nuclear weapons, which led to his authoring an insider account of India’s nuclear weapon-related programs, Weapons of Peace. He subsequently rose through the ranks to become Managing Editor of India Today. He is currently Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the Tribune, the largest circulation newspaper chain in the Punjab.
Other “graduates” of Stimson’s visiting fellowship program are now are professors based at academic centers in Chennai, Varanasi, Karachi, Baroda, Chandigarh, Islamabad and New Delhi. Journalists who were trained at the Stimson Center have filed stories for The Hindu, India Today, The Deccan Herald, Indian Express, Nation, Daily Times, Friday Times, and Frontier Post. As papers have faded away, and as print journalism has been joined by a more vigorous, privatized form of broadcasting, some former Visiting Fellows have moved to broadcast journalism. While most Visiting Fellows have been in their thirties, occasionally Stimson hosted seniors in the hope that they would help strengthen the NGO sector in their countries. Two of Stimson’s former Visiting Fellows helped launch independent NGOs focusing on security issues: V.R. Raghavan, who helped launch the Delhi Policy Group and the Centre for Security Analysis in Chennai, and Dipankar Banerjee, the co-founder of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi.
For a list of Stimson’s former Visiting Fellows, see this page.
SPD Visiting Fellows
When private U.S, foundation funding for visiting fellowships dried up, Stimson turned to the US Government for funding. Since 2001, Stimson has been hosting military officers from the Strategic Plans Division at Joint Staff Headquarters, as well as civilians from the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority. These fellowships are currently funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration. SPD and PNRA Visiting Fellows stay at Stimson for three months. They pursue a research topic while in residence and are responsible for producing an essay on their chosen topic. While in residence, visiting fellows meet with NGOs, academics, US Government officials and staffers on Capitol Hill. They attend programs of interest hosted by NGOs in the Washington, D.C. area.
Project Director Michael Krepon with Former Visiting Fellows from the Strategic Plans Division and the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority
For a list of Stimson’s former SPD and PNRA Visiting Fellows, see this page.
Workshops, Meetings, and Public Speaking
Events in Pakistan and India provide opportunities to engage a rising generation of talented analysts as well as senior level officials. Stimson seeks to foster substantive, respectful interaction on nuclear-related issues through these meetings, talks, and workshops.
In the past two years, the Project Director and Research Associate have given talks and helped to convene workshops at: the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad; Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad; the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS); National Defence University, Islamabad; Forman Christian College, Lahore; the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi; the United Services Institution, New Delhi; the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi; and the India Strategic Forum at the India International Centre, New Delhi.
On June 18-20, Stimson’s South Asia program hosted a workshop on “Deterrence Stability in South Asia” with the Carnegie Endowment, in Istanbul. During the workshop 18 rising analysts from India and Pakistan assessed challenges to deterrence stability and developed strategies for improving India-Pakistan cooperation.
*Photo Credit: Ali Mustafa
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