By Shane Eric-Eugene Hensinger
Master's Candidate in International Security
Josef Korbel School of International Studies

and Nirvana Bhatia
Master's Candidate in Human Rights
Josef Korbel School of International Studies

Acclaimed Pakistani author and educator Hassan Abbas told a packed Josef Korbel School of International Studies lecture audience that, despite increasing terrorist violence, his country's people embrace democracy and seek to put books, not guns, in the hands of their children.

In the well-attended lecture on the future of Pakistan, Abbas focused on current challenges and possible solutions rather than historical events.

"Too often, when people say they want to talk about the future, all they do is look to the past," Abbas said.

About 150 Josef Korbel School students gathered to hear Abbas, a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New York-based Asia Society and author of the acclaimed Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America's War on Terror.

Abbas saluted the resilience of the Pakistani people and the vibrancy of Pakistani civil society -- specifically the Lawyers Movement, which successfully challenged the 2007 removal of the country's chief justice by former military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

"The Lawyers Movement emphasized the rule of law in Pakistan" Abbas said, adding that the uprising demonstrated that, despite the country's tumultuous history of military rule, a strong desire for democracy endures.

Evidence of that desire for democracy can be seen in the fact that in the country's 2008 elections, candidates advocating religious fundamentalism received less than 4 percent of the national vote, Abbas said.

Josef Korbel School Professor Tahira Khan praised Abbas and said his book has made a difference for her students.

"I have lived his book, choosing it for my courses to read for the past four years, and he was not repetitive at all," Khan said. "It really makes a difference to have him add the latest information; it's very inspiring."

Abbas, a former chief of police in a region near Pakistan's Swat Valley district, is working on a police-reform project in Pakistan to provide better training and equipment. "Terrorism cannot be defeated through the military," Abbas said. "It must be done through a history of local police efforts."

Abbas took note of the presence of Josef Korbel School Dean Tom Farer, who worked on police reform in the Somali Republic and attended Abbas' lecture.

"You should be proud of your dean," Abbas said. "We really clicked."

As for the future of Pakistan, Abbas said educating the country's young people is key.

"It depends on these kids, whether we can finance their education, and whether we put a book or a gun or in their hand," Abbas said. "This choice is not just for Pakistan, but for all of us as well."

Abbas is a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New York headquarters of the Asia Society and holds the Quaid-i-Azam chair at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an LL.M. in International Law from Nottingham University, U.K. Hassan was a visiting fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation.

His research interests are nuclear proliferation, religious extremism in South and Central Asia and relations between Muslims and the West.

Visit Abbas' blog here.