Dr Barnett Rubin

Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Centre on International Cooperation,
New York University

Al-Falasi Lecture Theatre, Bldg 127, Ellery Crescent
Australian National University

Seven years after the US-led coalition and the Afghan commanders it supported
pushed the leaderships of the Taliban and al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and into
Pakistan, an insurgency that includes these and other groups is gaining ground
in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. More US troops, more money, and attacks
into Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas will do little to counter the growing threats
or avert chaos. US strategy must seek a diplomatic grand bargain - forging
compromise with insurgents while addressing an array of regional rivalries and
insecurities. Dr Rubin will outline some of the complexities involved in pursuing such a bargain.
Barnett R. Rubin is Director of Studies and Senior Fellow at the Center on International Cooperation
of New York University, where he directs the program on the Reconstruction of Afghanistan. He has
worked at CIC since July 2000. During 1994-2000 he was Director of the Center for Preventive Action,
and Director, Peace and Confl ict Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Rubin
was Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for the Study of Central Asia
at Columbia University from 1990 to 1996. Previously, he was a Jennings Randolph Peace Fellow at
the United States Institute of Peace and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
Dr Rubin is the author of The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the
International System (2002; fi rst edition 1995); and Calming the Ferghana Valley: Development and
Dialogue in the Heart of Central Asia (1999).