M. Chris Mason
Contact:
Email: sharanprt@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.nps.edu/programs/ccs/Mason_bio.html
Experience
M. Chris Mason is Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. He served as a political officer on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and is recently retired from the U.S. Foreign Service.
Winter 2008/09
"Correspondence: Misunderstanding Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area?"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 3, volume 33
By Kimberly Marten, Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason
Kimberly Marten replies to Johnson and Mason's Spring 2008 International Security article, "No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier."
AP Photo
Spring 2008
"No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 4, volume 32
By Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason
The portion of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area dominated by Pashtun tribes poses the greatest challenge to U.S. national security interests. Here, extremist groups such as the Taliban and al-Qaida continue to enjoy safe haven. The Pashtun, whose tribal structures have been subverted since the 1970s, represent a unique cultural challenge that the U.S. foreign policy establishment has failed to appreciate. To reverse the trend of radicalization in this area, the United States and the Afghan government must strengthen and rebuild the Pashtuns’ tribal structures while reducing the external pressures on them. Maintaining the current policy of extending the central government into this region will only foment insurgency among a proto-insurgent people.
