Conférence // Understanding Pakistani Geopolitics - Sciences Po Grenoble

The occasion for you to meet the Ambassador of Pakistan in France & the first non-white and muslim Lord Mayor of Oxford (from 2013-2015) !

At the crossroads of the Middle-East and Asia, Pakistan has been at the heart of the stakes of this region for decades, having a consequent role in the geostrategic & security balances. Depicted in Western media as a terrorist nest since 9/11, it is necessary nowadays to shine a light on the complex relationships the country has, especially with the United States, Afghanistan and China which shaped its political scene, to understand to what extend Pakistan is -and is going to be- a key player in international relations.

An opportunity to grasp the shape of a country at the eastern borders of the Middle East, far from western misconceptions, through historical, sociological and geopolitical aspects.

➤ WHERE ? AMPHI A
➤ WHEN ? Wednesday 28/02, from 17h30 - 19h30

_____// GUESTS OF HONOR // ____________________________________

▶ HIS EXCELLENCE, Mr. MOIN-UL-HAQUE (1rst picture)
Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in France, and Permanent Delegate to the UNESCO. He joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in 1987 and has been the First Secretary in the permanent mission of Pakistan in the United Nations between 1999-2002. After having worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh, Brussels, Colombo, Vancouver and Ankara, H.E Moin-ul-Haque is the Director General (Europe) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Permanent delegate in the UNESCO since 2013.

▶ SR. MUHAMMAD NIAZ ABBASI (second picture)
1st non-White and muslim Lord Mayor of Oxford in 2013, then for 2014/2015, now Councillor at the Oxford City Council, and member of the Labor Party, Sr. Muhammad Niaz Abbasi grew up and studied in Pakistan, then came to the U.K in 1963 when he was 20, as an economic migrant and started as an engineer. Later he became deputy and first non-white councillor. After serving a year as sheriff, he became Lord Mayor for the second time in 2014.

▶ MR. JEAN-LUC RACINE,
Highly skilled study leader to the CNRS, in the center of studies of India and South-East Asia (CEIAS) of the EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), and vice-president of the think tank Asia Centre, Jean-Luc Racine is working on the geopolitics of South Asia, particularly the indo-Pakistani relations and the Pakistani regional politics, including their Afghan and Chinese dimensions. He participated in numerous dialogues of the second track diplomacy with India and Pakistan and intervenes regularly in the media on questions affecting this region of the world.

▶ & MR. PIERRE MICHELLETI (mediator)
Doctor, holder of the national diploma of public health, he began his first experiments abroad in 1985. In 1987, he joined Médecins du Monde as project manager in Guatemala, became the program manager in 1996, and was elected at the presidency in 2006. Since 2009 he has taught at the Institute of Political Studies of Grenoble where he is the assistant director of the Master's degree "Policies and Practices of the International Organizations ", as well as to the Faculty of Medicine of Grenoble where he manages the diploma « health-solidarité-précarité » (« health, solidarity, precarity ») . In 2014, he joined the board of director of Action Against the Hunger, to become the vice-president of the association one year later. At the same time, he has been, since 2016, National member of the Mental Health Council. He is the author of numerous articles in the national media, in particular as collaborator of the Diplomatic World.