Azeem Ibrahim

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May 13, 2009

"Here's an Easy Way to Save Taxpayer £100m — Dump Half Our MPs"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"If parliament were a business, solutions would be clear. We would cut the numbers employed, bring more talented people in, and give them the resources to get on with doing a better job. The same solution is right for parliament. This means reducing MPs' numbers to improve their aggregate quality. Does anyone really believe we need more than 323, half the current number?...The next task is to bring more talented people into politics. We need to attract MPs who have more life experience and have had a job in the real world. Halving the number of places available would ensure parties picked the best candidates, and a political version of market forces would see the most qualified and competent MPs remain...."

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April 16, 2009

"Grounds for Optimism over Middle East Peace"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"...Israeli hawks have historically been better at moving towards peace than doves. Begin made peace with Egypt, Sharon left Gaza, Barak — a Labour ex-military hawk — left Lebanon, and Netanyahu gave Palestinians control of Hebron and parts of the West Bank to the Palestinians.

This time round, Netanyahu says he will personally oversee a government committee to improve the West Bank economy. If it works, and Palestinians in the West Bank feel the improvement, then Fatah could come out of this year's likely Palestinian legislative elections with an increased majority, strengthening the moderate Palestinian leadership, and so improving its ability to actually implement any negotiated agreement it might make...."

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March 10, 2009

"Taking Seriously the Situation in Pakistan"

Op-Ed

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"The Defence Secretary, John Hutton, has argued that the war in Afghanistan was important because the country had provided Al-Qa’ida with territory in which to train and plan attacks, and that Pakistan mattered because the Taliban were directed and supplied from across its 1,500 mile open border. Whilst that was the accepted picture, few gave any credence to the idea that Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to the world than Afghanistan. Now, that very idea has been voiced by the top US diplomat in Kabul. According to this new understanding, allied strategy must engage with Pakistan's fate as a matter of urgency."

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March 6, 2009

"Pakistan in Denial is its Biggest Security Obstacle"

Op-Ed, Middle East Times

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"...[M]ost of the Pakistani elite are in denial. Too many authoritative figures simply refuse to face the extent to which the terrorist threat from Islamist radicals comes from within Pakistan....Many Pakistanis believe that America wants the destruction of Pakistan because it is the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons, and that it is trying to enlist Pakistani help in Afghanistan only in order to trap it in a pincer movement between India and American troops there."

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February 18, 2009

"Power and Energy Priorities Must Include the Nuclear Option"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"Our international competitors are beginning to realise that no other technology will make up the energy shortfall. Social democratic Sweden has just ended a thirty-year ban, partly because nuclear is the only way it can meet its climate change targets. Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are moving in the same direction. Environmentalists are beginning to realise the same thing. George Monbiot now says that opposing nuclear is now less important than preventing the harm from a radically changing climate...."

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February 5, 2009

"Behind the Headlines: Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow at the International Security Programme at Harvard University"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"ALL the attention on Barack Obama's attempts to increase international troop numbers in Afghanistan threatens to obscure the grave situation facing Pakistan. Increasing threats to its integrity on the economic, political, and military fronts may constitute the biggest existential risk it has faced in its 61-year history. The Obama administration must factor this into its foreign policy strategy...."

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January 21, 2009

"Obama's 'Troops in' Movement Will Not Force the Taleban Out"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"The bottom line is that our war aims can still be achieved, but not by force alone. Lasting stability in Afghanistan will only be achieved by negotiating with moderate elements in the Taleban and opening the way for them to share power. That will bolster the legitimacy of national government in Afghanistan, and ultimately divide and weaken the insurgents. Troops will be necessary to reduce the insurgency. But this should be seen as a means to the end of ending the conflict by enabling us to negotiate from a position of relative strength. Only a power-sharing government which includes the least extreme elements of the Taleban will be able to achieve the other three war aims — ensuring that Afghanistan remains a legitimate state, ensuring that it can handle its own security, and keeping core al Qaeda out of the country."

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January 8, 2009

"We Have Military to be Proud of — So Give Them Money They Need"

Op-Ed, The Scotsman

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"As a country, we must face the fact our armed forces have reached the limit of what they can afford to do. Aside from Afghanistan and Iraq, we have troops deployed in large numbers in Germany and defence and peacekeeping duties in Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands. As a country, we claim to be proud of the dedication and professionalism of ourarmed forces, but we spend half as much on them per head as the Americans do."

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December 20, 2008

"They Grew Up Half an Hour Away from Each Other. They Both Faced a Choice. One Became a Successful Entrepreneur and Prominent Thinker. One Bombed Glasgow Airport"

Op-Ed, Sunday Herald, (Scotland)

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"...[B]oth he and I faced a choice between seeing Islam as setting us against our country, or as setting us up to be a part of it. Equally clearly, we made different choices. However, that is the same choice facing half a million Muslim young people growing up all over Britain, and about half a billion more all over the world."

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December 3, 2008

"Islamist Terrorism Goes Freelance"

Op-Ed, Chicago Tribune

By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program

"Intelligence services in the U.S., United Kingdom, Holland, Denmark and Sweden agree that the main threat now comes mainly from freelance cells. Islamist terrorism has changed and the atrocities in Mumbai show that failure to grasp that change is dangerous....Freelance radicals can move across borders easily, disband and regroup at will and can be coordinated remotely. Inspiration and know-how can be disseminated, and plans formed, online between radicals who need not even have met. But the crucial difference is that any given terrorist can be replaced with another. That means any terrorist group cannot be conclusively defeated. This fact calls for a change in how Western governments address terror."