Join MESF on August 16 to welcome Dr M. Zafar Iqbal Cheema to Deakin for a talk on Pakistan’s Foreign Relations with the Arab states and Iran. The talk will take place on Level 2 of Building BC of Deakin University’s Burwood campus from 12:00pm – 1:30pm.

As this is a catered event, please RSVP by August 10 to mesf@deakin.edu.au

Pakistan’s foreign relations with most of the Arab States and Iran are wedged between their sectarian divide, accentuated by the resurgence of their historic antagonism, and compounded by conflicting regional policies and diverging perspectives on terrorism. Pakistan is finding it increasingly difficult to develop mutually acceptable criteria for a friendly trilateral relationship with Iran and Saudi Arabia, despite that the three countries enjoyed the best of friendly relations during the Cold War. Indeed, Iran and Saudi Arabia acted as ‘twin pillars’ of the United States’ Middle East policy and Pakistan was an important U.S. and Western ally in the containment strategy against the former Soviet Union.

Bio

Dr. M. Zafar Iqbal Cheema is the President & Executive Director of the Strategic Vision Institute (SVI), and former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Meritorious Professor of Strategic Studies & Chairman (2005 – 2008) and Founding Member of the Department of Defence & Strategic Studies (DSS), Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad. Dr. Cheema is the author of Indian Nuclear deterrence: Its Evolution, Development and Implications for South Asian Security (Karachi – Oxford, OUP, 2010), pp. 609 and the editor of: i) Shifting Dynamics and Emerging Power Equilibrium in South and Central Asia around Post – 2014 (Islamabad, SVI, 2013), ii) Energy Crisis and Nuclear Safety and Security of Pakistan (Islamabad, SVI, 2014), and iii) Matrix of Regional and National Security in South Asia and Its Post-2014 Dynamics (Islamabad, SVI, 2014).