February 2005
News

Strategic Stability in South Asia

The University hosted a conference to formally launch its South Asian Strategic Stability Unit (SASSU).

The South Asian Strategic Stability Unit (SASSU) was established as a specialist research unit within the University's Bradford Disarmament Research Centre [BDRC].

Over the past 10 years the BDRC, based in the internationally renowned Department of Peace Studies, the world's largest academic centre exclusively for the study of peace and conflict, has been at the forefront of WMD arms control and disarmament research.

SASSU aims to make a leading contribution to regional and international academic and policy-orientated research discourses about South Asian security.

From left to right (back row) Vice Chancellor Professor Chris Taylor, Rector of the Pakistan National University of Sciences and Technology Lt Gen Syed Shujaat Hussain, High Commissioner for Bangladesh His Excellency A. H. Mofazzal Karim and Director of SASSU and Head of Peace Studies Professor Shaun Gregory. (front row) Deputy Director of SASSU Ms Maria Sultan, High Commissioner for Pakistan Her Excellency Maleeha Lodhi, and High Commissioner for India His Excellency Mr Kamalesh Sharma.

The opening session of the conference was addressed by international dignitaries such as the High Commissioners of Pakistan and India, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford Professor Christopher Taylor, and the Rector of the Pakistan National University of Sciences and Technology, Lt Gen Syed Shujaat Hussain [Retd].

The Unit's Director Professor Shaun Gregory delivered a Conference Framework Presentation entitled 'Towards Strategic Stability in South Asia'. This inaugural session was followed by a full conference programme.

Experts from the South Asian region, North America and Europe gave presentations on issues related to South Asian strategic stability. The conference title "Towards Strategic Stability in South Asia" focused on the portfolio of tools which are widely understood to underpin strategic stability, and reflected the imperative to achieve robust and sustainable strategic stability in the region

. Shaun said: "Each of these approaches have a track record in South Asia and to date none has delivered durable strategic stability in the region such that we can have confidence that neither India nor Pakistan can achieve useful nuclear advantage over the other.

"Speakers explored these issues in more detail and reflected on the various tools used to assess their track record in South Asia, and the ways in which we might develop sustainable and transformative processes to exploit these tools more effectively."

• Further information on SASSU can be found at www.bradford.ac.uk/acad/sassu/

14 February 2005

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