Madiha Afzal
David M. Rubenstein Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy, Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
Madiha Afzal is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program. Her research lies at the intersection of political economy, development, and security, with a focus on Pakistan. She previously worked as an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Afzal is the author of “Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State,” published by the Brookings Institution Press in 2018 (the book was also published in South Asia and Afghanistan by Penguin India). Afzal has also published several journal articles, book chapters, policy reports, and essays. In addition, she writes for publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Dawn, and Newsweek. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets including BBC, NPR, and PBS. In addition, she has consulted for international organizations including the World Bank and UK’s Department for International Development. For her writing on education in Pakistan, she was named to Lo Spazio della Politica's list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013.” Afzal received her doctorate in economics from Yale University in 2008, specializing in development economics and political economy.
Affiliations:
Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), fellow
Institute for Economic and Development Alternatives, Pakistan (IDEAS), fellow
Madiha Afzal is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Foreign Policy program. Her research lies at the intersection of political economy, development, and security, with a focus on Pakistan. She previously worked as an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Afzal is the author of “Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State,” published by the Brookings Institution Press in 2018 (the book was also published in South Asia and Afghanistan by Penguin India). Afzal has also published several journal articles, book chapters, policy reports, and essays. In addition, she writes for publications including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, Dawn, and Newsweek. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets including BBC, NPR, and PBS. In addition, she has consulted for international organizations including the World Bank and UK’s Department for International Development. For her writing on education in Pakistan, she was named to Lo Spazio della Politica’s list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013.” Afzal received her doctorate in economics from Yale University in 2008, specializing in development economics and political economy.
Affiliations:
Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), fellow
Institute for Economic and Development Alternatives, Pakistan (IDEAS), fellow
Pakistan Under Siege
The book details the rise of religious extremism and explains how the state has been both complicit in extremist violence and victimized by it. . . . Afzal’s book offers a useful survey of the many pressures—cultural, religious, economic—that add to social and political instability in Pakistan.
—Mohammed Hanif, Foreign Affairs
Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State.. is a remarkably clear, concise, and accessible attempt to dismantle assumptions common among Westerners about public opinion in Pakistan. . . Afzal not only gives the lie to Western stereotypes about the prevalence of extremist beliefs in Muslim countries; she also looks closely and critically at the ways in which the Pakistani government has encouraged the country’s militarization and what she refers to as its "Islamization."
—Ahmed Rashid, The New York Review of Books
The Pakistani state’s response to the TTP [Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan] was limited to a kinetic one, in the form of the Zarb-e-Azb military operation... Given that [Pakistan didn't counter extremism in the population], it was only a matter of time before the group resurfaced — its pool of recruits to draw from remains intact.
The firmest ground to stand on to argue for a delayed withdrawal [from Afghanistan] is the fact that the Taliban hasn’t met its commitments to cut ties with al-Qaeda as per that [February 2020] deal.
[Biden] is in a bind. If we leave on May 1, violence between the Taliban and Kabul will certainly increase, and Afghanistan will devolve into some state of protracted violence. If we stay, the Taliban will start attacking American troops again and Biden will be saddled with the blame of just having lengthened America’s longest war.
The drone program was effective in taking out some leaders of the Pakistan Taliban. It took out Baitullah Mehsud, Hakimullah Mehsud and took out Fazlullah, and many Al-Qaeda fighters who had moved over to Pakistan from Afghanistan after 2001... It did, however, have an effect on perceptions... The relationship [between President Trump and Prime Minister Khan] started off on such a terrible footing that maybe the only way to go was up from the low of 2018. Imran Khan and Trump really hit it off [during a meeting in Washington, DC]. Both celebrities-turned-politicians, both populists who are very privileged, personally... I would be curious to see what lens the Biden administration takes towards Pakistan. Is it going to be an Af[ghanistan]-Pak[istan] lens? Is it going to be a Pak[istan]-India lens? Is it going to be a Pakistan on its own lens?
[On the death of Khadim Hussain Rizvi] A leader’s death, however, instrumental or charismatic he may have been, is not enough to do away with an extremist organization. TLP’s ideology has strong roots in Pakistan, and many buyers