Pakistan has the second-largest gender gap in the world, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report in 2016, and ranks 153 out of 163 countries in Global Peace Index for the same year. In a South Asia Week panel moderated by Cathryn Cluver, speakers will discuss the relationship between women’s empowerment, peacebuilding and development in defining an inclusive security agenda for Pakistan.
Breakfast will be served.
Ambassador Cameron Munter is the Chief Executive Officer and President of the EastWest Institute.
Ambassador Munter has been a career diplomat, serving in some of the most conflict-ridden areas of the globe. He served as U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan from 2010-2012, where he guided U.S.-Pakistani relations through a strained period, including the operation against Osama bin Laden, while leading a 2,500-employee embassy. Previously he served as Ambassador to Serbia, where he negotiated Serbian domestic consensus for European integration and managed the Kosovo independence crisis.
Ambassador Munter also served twice in Iraq, leading the first Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mosul and then overseeing U.S. civilian and military cooperation in planning the drawdown of U.S. troops. In Europe, he served in the Czech Republic and Poland, where he helped manage the American contribution to those countries’ integration into the global economy. He was a Director at the National Security Council at the White House, and had numerous other domestic assignments at the State Department in Washington.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Ambassador Munter taught European history at the University of California Los Angeles. He also has been Professor of International Relations at Pomona College in Claremont, taught at Columbia University School of Law, was a Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and has two honorary doctoral degrees.
Beena Sarwar is a Pakistani journalist, artist and documentary filmmaker focusing on media, gender, peace and human rights issues. She has extensive experience in television and print media in Pakistan and abroad. Her opinion pieces and reports have been published by the New York Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, Inter Press Service, Global Post, Latitude News and publications in India and Pakistan. She has contributed comment and analysis to various television and radio channels around the world, including BBC, CNN, and VOA. She was Features Editor of The Frontier Post in Lahore; Editor of The News on Sunday in Pakistan; Producer of Geo TV in Pakistan; and Op-ed Editor or The News International in Pakistan. She has an M.A. in Television Documentary (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and a double-major B.A. in Studio Art and English Literature (Brown University). She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University; Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy; and Associate Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance. She is currently based in Cambridge, working part-time as Editor of Aman ki Asha, a peace initiative between the Jang Group of Newspapers, Pakistan and The Times of India.
