Front & Center with John Callaway: Pakistan: Challenges, Threats, and Opportunities

In recent years, Pakistan has assumed a major role in the international scene. But as a relatively new country—albeit one with ancient traditions—how is Pakistan dealing with the overwhelming political, military, and economic challenges it faces, all while grappling with extremists and the risk of insurrection? And what is America's strategic position with regard to a nuclear-armed Pakistan? John Callaway and his panel of experts present an exploration of Pakistan, its neighbors, and its place in the Islamic world on Front & Center with John Callaway.

Catherine Dale is a practitioner and scholar of U.S. national and international security issues, in particular complex contingencies. As Specialist in International Security at the Congressional Research Service (CRS), she provides analytical support to Members and staff to help frame critical national security debates. She is the lead CRS expert on strategy and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also spearheads CRS's analytical focus on national security reform. Previously, as Policy Assistant and Speechwriter to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, she helped to shape the Department's broad strategic vision. She came to Washington from Iraq, where she went to war as the Political Advisor to the Commanding General of U.S. Army V Corps, and continued as POLAD for the Commanding General of Combined Joint Task Force-7, from 2003 to 2004. She also served for four years as the Special Assistant to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, where she helped craft a UN shuttle diplomacy effort aimed at achieving the political settlement of the conflict in Georgia's break-away region, Abkhazia.

As an academic, Dr. Dale's work has focused on the politics and security issues in the former Soviet Union and the problems of long-term internal displacement. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley; and an M.S. in National Security Studies from the National War College.

Dr. Dale will be speaking in her private capacity. The views she expresses on this program do not necessarily represent those of the Congressional Research Service or the Library of Congress.

Saad B. Qais is a banking professional focused on international finance. He grew up in Lahore, Pakistan and moved to the United States after high school to study Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He later earned a Master's of Business Administration degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. For the past 11 years, Qais worked at ABN AMRO Bank in Chicago where he worked on structured debt transactions in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Qais visits Pakistan frequently, as most of his family resides there. He is a member of the Human Development Fund, which is focused on small infrastructure projects in rural Pakistan; The Citizens Foundation, which builds schools in Pakistan; and the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business Pakistan Association. He currently resides in Chicago with his wife, Hina.

Frank Schell is an outside independent senior consultant for CRA (formerly Charles River Associates), engaged in enterprise risk management and business strategy. He was formerly Senior Vice President of a major U.S. bank, specializing in global trade, treasury, and risk management. He was stationed in Sao Paulo, London, and East Africa, and has been involved with financial institutions banking with the Middle East, India, and Pakistan. He was also Assistant Treasurer of an aerospace/defense contractor engaged in project finance. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in India and speaks Hindi-Urdu, a principal language of India and Pakistan. Recently he returned from a fact-finding mission to India with the Dean's International Council of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He serves on the editorial board of the Chicago-based National Strategy Forum, which focuses on national security issues. His essays have been published in the Far Eastern Economic Review, Chicago Tribune, National Strategy Forum Review, and American Spectator. He holds an M.B.A. in finance from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Stanford University.