Lecture of Defense Analyst Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa at Kinnaird College for Women Lahore
Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa Agha is an independent security analyst and strategic affairs columnist of Pakistan. She is also a regular op-ed contributor to Dawn, and before that to Daily Times. Dr Siddiqa visited Kinnaird College for women for her lecture on Friday ,20th November 2009 and refreshed her old sweet memories as an old kcite. She delivered her lecture on “US Presence in South Asian Region” and handled the question answer session at the end. The lecture was of 40 minutes and Dr Siddiqa smartly handled this short time however the topic of her lecture was broad.
According to Dr Siddiqa, the countries built relation on the basis of their interests and US has erratic relation with South Asian region which was build during the cold war when Afghanistan played its role as a buffer state between US and USSR. Indian’s had a socialist policy during that movement. In 1958 Pakistan opted to join two arrangements CEATO and CENTO which was not liked by Muslim countries especially Egypt however Pakistan received military and financial assistance by US and made it clear to satisfy India that “weapons provided to fight would not be used against India to combat communism”. The relation between US and USSR had been affected the South Asian region. In 1962 when tension started between China and India, US was eager to help India instead of Pakistan’s unhappiness. US realized that its presence in this region means if they would help India, Pakistan will remain be unhappy and vise versa. In 1965 war Pakistan faced embargo. During 1970s India signed friendship treaty with USSR and received equipment on concessional rates. For Pakistan, US and China both are important, Pakistan is the only non-communist state to receive economic aid from US. So US contained USSR with the help of China by thinking its better to use a minor enemy against the big enemy.
After defining the history of relation between US and South Asia, Dr Siddiqa said that Amercia’s relations with this region developed gradually as there is a long geographical distance between both and the end of 1970s changed the situation when US had zero sum game with South Asian countries. In 1979, Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and Iranian revolution further reshaped the relations between US and South Asian countries. Pakistan started the training of Jihandi’s during 1970s, the last days of Bhutto’s government. The Soviet invasion in Afghanistan was to reach warm water in Pakistan but resulted in disintegration of USSR in 1990s.In 1990s, there was a new world as US happened to be the only supper power and were thinking to be the only supper power and were thinking to have a new relation with South Asian region and has started building economic and military relations and India became significant in this regard. The significant role of academia can not be neglected; who worked on India-US relation after Indra Gandhi who supported socialism in past but the new leadership propagated the capitalist state. The tension emerged between US and Pakistan. 9/11 incident was a miles tone between US/South Asia and resulted in first war in Afghanistan, second the emergence of non-state actors as a force, third the expansion of South Asia (when US joined SAARC), fourth the Bill Clinton started this strategy that we will engage in both India –Pakistan at the same time and China followed the same policy. China builds up the relation with India as they don’t want to be hostile to anyone out of both. Dr Ayesha remarked that American engagement in South Asia was build on the principles that what the other states will offer to them, but this relationship strategy can not be understand without the conspiracy theory. The important thing is that some important personals of government institutions had been caught in connection with Al-Qaeda, which shows the actual presence of Americans in this region. While concluding her lecture, Dr Siddiqa said that US can leave this region on two conditions, first if Pakistan agrees to leave and say good bye to democracy, second if Pakistan and India have bad relations.
Lecturer: Zamurrad Awan
Political Science Dept
Kinnaird College for Women Lhr
