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Speaker: Sitara Noor, a research fellow in the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Abstract: The strategic stability debate in South Asia is largely influenced by the complex and volatile relationship between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan. Growing competition between the United States (U.S.) and China and border dispute between China and India are influencing the security dynamics of the region, but it is the aggravating hostility between New Delhi and Islamabad over ongoing issues such as Kashmir and terrorism charges against one another that have increased risk of war in the region. The fragile balance of terror is influenced by various challenges such as evolving nuclear postures, regional power competition, conventional and nuclear arms race, and emerging technologies. In that regard, it is imperative that both states engage to resolve outstanding issues, develop confidence and evolve a strategic restraint regime to strengthen strategic stability in the region.
Bio: Sitara Noor is a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies in Islamabad, Pakistan and South Asian Voices Visiting Fellow 2019-2020. Previously, Sitara was the director of a Lahore-based policy consultancy and before that, a Research Fellow at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non Proliferation (VCDNP) in Vienna, Austria. Prior to joining the VCDNP, she worked at the Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority under the Directorate of Nuclear Security and Physical Protection as an International Relations Analyst. She has been a faculty member at the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad’s Department of International Relations for two years. She was also a visiting faculty at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Lahore, the Foreign Services Academy of Pakistan, and the Information Services Academy of Pakistan.