Center for Research and Security Studies

Last updated

The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) is a Pakistani, Islamabad-based independent non-profit think tank [1] founded by civil society activists to conduct research and advocacy on democratic governance, regional peace and security, human rights, and counter-radicalization. [2] [3] [4] CRSS was founded in 2007 by journalist and writer Imtiaz Gul. [5]

The CRSS specializes in communication to impart information to people in conflict- and disaster-hit areas. [6]

The head of the think tank is Imtiaz Gul, a strategic analyst, writer, and journalist. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Regional intergovernmental and geopolitical organisation

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's area, 21% of the world's population and 4.21% of the global economy, as of 2019.

Strategic depth is a term in military literature that broadly refers to the distances between the front lines or battle sectors and the combatants' industrial core areas, capital cities, heartlands, and other key centers of population or military production.

Maleeha Lodhi Pakistani diplomat and political scientist

Maleeha Lodhi is a Pakistani diplomat, political scientist, and a former Pakistan's Representative to the United Nations. She was the first woman to hold the position. Previously, she served as Pakistan's envoy to the Court of St James' and twice as its ambassador to the United States.

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi Pakistani writer

Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi born Ahmad Shah Awan was an Urdu language Pakistani poet, journalist, literary critic, dramatist and short story author. He wrote 50 books on topics such as poetry, fiction, criticism, journalism and art, and was a major figure in contemporary Urdu literature. His poetry was distinguished by its humanism, and his Urdu afsana work is considered by some second only to Munshi Prem Chand in its depiction of rural culture. He was also editor and publisher of the literary magazine Funoon for almost half a century. He received awards such as the Pride of Performance in 1968 and Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1980 for his literary work.

Hamid Mir Pakistani journalist, columnist, and author

Hamid Mir is a Pakistani journalist, columnist and an author. Born in Lahore to a journalistic family, Mir initially worked as a journalist with Pakistani newspapers. He has hosted the political talk show Capital Talk on Geo News. He writes columns for Urdu as well as English newspapers, both national and international. He is well-known for his stance against the dominance of the Establishment in Pakistan. Hamid Mir has survived two assassination attempts, has been banned from television three times and has lost his job twice due to his stand for press freedom and human rights.

Hamid Gul Pakistani general

Hamid Gul HI(M), SB, was a three-star rank army general in the Pakistan Army and defence analyst. Gul was notable for serving as the Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, between 1987 and 1989. During his tenure, Gul played an instrumental role in directing ISI support to Afghan resistance groups against Soviet forces in return for funds and weapons from the USA, during the Soviet–Afghan War, in co-operation with the CIA.

Islamabad Policy Research Institute Pakistani research institute founded in 1999

The Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), established in 1999, is one of the oldest non-partisan think-tanks. It is affiliated with the National Security Division (NSD), Government of Pakistan. National Security Advisor (NSA) to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Dr. Moeed Yusuf, is the ex-Officio Patron of IPRI.

Husain Haqqani Pakistani diplomat

Husain Haqqani is a Pakistani journalist, academic, political activist and former ambassador of Pakistan to Sri Lanka and the United States.

Iran–Pakistan relations Bilateral relations

Iran–Pakistan relations covers the bilateral relations between the adjacent states of Iran and Pakistan. After Pakistan gained its independence in August 1947, Iran was one of the first countries to recognize its sovereign status. Relations between Shi'a-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Pakistan became greatly strained due to sectarian tensions in the 1980s, as Pakistani Shi'a Muslims claimed that they were being discriminated against under the Sunni-biased Islamization program being imposed throughout Pakistan by the military dictatorship government of then-President, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran and Saudi Arabia gradually began to use Pakistan as a battleground for their proxy sectarian conflict, and Pakistan's support for the Deobandi Taliban organization in Afghanistan during the civil wars in the 1990s became a problem for Shi'a Iran, which opposed a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

National Directorate of Security Former national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan

The National Directorate of Security was the national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, and it had field offices and training facilities in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan. The NDS was part of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).

Pakistan–Turkey relations Bilateral relations

Pakistan-Turkey relations refers to the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Turkey. Pakistan has an embassy in Ankara, a Consulate-General in Istanbul and an honorary consulate in İzmir whereas, Turkey has an embassy in Islamabad, a Consulate-General in Karachi and honorary consulates in Lahore, Peshawar, Sialkot and Faisalabad. As of 2016, in a joint communique, Pakistan and Turkey plan to strengthen their close ties into a "strategic partnership".

Salma Malik is teaching at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.

Darul Uloom Haqqania Islamic religious seminary in northern Pakistan

Darul Uloom Haqqania or Jamia Dar al-Ulum Haqqania is an Islamic Seminary in the town of Akora Khattak, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, northwestern Pakistan. The seminary propagates the Hanafi Deobandi school of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Maulana Abdul Haq along the lines of the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary in India, where he had taught. It has been dubbed the University of Jihad due to its methods and content of instruction, along with the future occupations of its alumni. A number of leading members of the Taliban, including past chief Akhtar Mansour, studied here.

Sami ul Haq was a Pakistani religious scholar and senator. He was known as the Father of Taliban in World for the role his seminary Darul Uloom Haqqania played in the graduation of most Taliban leaders and commanders.

Farrukh Saleem is an Islamabad-based Pakistani political scientist, economist, financial analyst, journalist and a television personality.

Ehsanullah Ehsan is a former spokesman of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and later Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. As a spokesperson of the groups, Ehsan would use media campaigns, social media networks and call up local journalists to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks on behalf of the groups. He was initially a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In 2014, he left TTP after he had developed ideological differences with the TTP leadership following the appointment of Fazlullah as the leader of the group. He later co-founded Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and became its spokesman. In 2015, as a spokesman of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, he condemned Fazlullah-led Tehrik-e-Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar.

Malik Siraj Akbar

Malik Siraj Akbar is an ethnic Baloch journalist based in the United States. He is the editor-in-chief of the Baluch Hal, the first online English language newspaper of Pakistan's Balochistan Province, Enkaar, a liberal Urdu language news magazine, and a contributing writer for The Huffington Post. He lives in exile in the United States.

Naqeebullah Mehsud was killed on January 13, 2018, in Karachi, Pakistan, during a fake encounter staged by the senior superintendent of police (SSP) of Karachi's Malir District, Rao Anwar. On January 3, Naqeebullah was kidnapped along with two of his friends, Ali and Mohammed Qasim, by Rao Anwar's men in plainclothes from Gul Sher Agha Hotel in Sohrab Goth, Karachi. On January 6, both of his friends were freed by the police, but Naqeebullah was kept in captivity, tortured, and then killed on January 13 in a fake encounter in which he was shot twice in the back. Alongside Naqeebullah, three other men namely Muhammad Sabir and Muhammad Ishaq from Bahawalpur and Nazar Jan Mahsud from South Waziristan were also killed by the police in the staged encounter, the latter of whom was shot from a close range. On January 17, Naqeebullah's dead body was handed over to his relatives at the Chhipa Welfare Association morgue in Karachi. On January 18, his body was taken by his relatives to Tank, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Islamic funeral prayer was performed for him, and on the same day, he was buried at his hometown Makeen, South Waziristan. The fake encounter sparked countrywide protests against extrajudicial killings in Pakistan.

Pashtun Tahafuz Movement Social movement for Pashtun human rights

The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement is a social movement for Pashtun human rights based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The movement was founded in May 2014 by eight students in Dera Ismail Khan.

The Afghan peace process comprised the proposals and negotiations that sought to end the war in Afghanistan that began in 2001 and ended in 2021 with the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Although there had been sporadic efforts since the war began, negotiations and the peace movement intensified in 2018 amid talks between the Taliban, which is the main insurgent group fighting against the then-Afghan government and American troops, and the United States, thousands of whose soldiers maintained a presence within the country to support the Afghan government. Besides the United States, major powers such as China, India, Pakistan, Russia, as well as NATO, played a part that they saw as facilitating the peace process, while the Afghan peace group People's Peace Movement saw regional and global powers as a cause of continued war.

References

  1. "Track-II dialogue calls upon Pakistan, Afghanistan to continue engagement". Daily Times. December 18, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  2. "Beyond Boundaries calls for extension of Afghan refugees stay in Pakistan". Daily Times. December 30, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  3. "In first quarter of 2018: 52% decline in violent fatalities". The Express Tribune. April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  4. "'Madressah registration, reform can mitigate most negative consequences,' says report". DAWN.COM. January 31, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  5. Pakistan: Before and After Osama, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague. Retrieved 2016-01-05.
  6. "Army called in to restore peace after cop martyred, over 200 hurt in Islamabad clashes - Pakistan". The News International. November 25, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  7. "Indian diplomat arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan". Los Angeles Times . April 27, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
  8. "newsbrief". The Nation. April 20, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2018.