November 3, 2011 Alexander Evans to Discuss U.S.-Pakistan Relations, Nov. 17

How members of Pakistan’s strategic elite view their country’s national interests will be addressed in a lecture by Alexander Evans, the Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress.

Evans, who spent 2009-2011 as a senior adviser to the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, will present “Pakistan’s Strategic Culture and U.S.-Pakistan Relations” at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17, in Room 119 on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by the Kluge Center, the event is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

Drawing on archival research, Evans will discuss how Pakistan understands its strategic interests and what this means for U.S.-Pakistan relations. How much can the United States influence Pakistan’s foreign and domestic policy choices? Are there broader lessons about the nature of U.S. foreign policy and America’s ability to effect change overseas?

As senior adviser to the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Evans worked first for the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and then for Ambassador Marc Grossman. Evans is a counselor in the British diplomatic service. He has served on the United Kingdom Policy Planning staff and has worked as a British diplomat in Pakistan and India. Evans was appointed an officer of the Order of the British Empire in June 2010.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington appointed Evans to the Kissinger chair from July 2011 to January 2012. Evans is the 11th scholar to occupy the chair. The position was created in 2000 through the generosity of friends of Kissinger to honor the former secretary of state and to emphasize the importance of foreign affairs.

Through a generous endowment from John W. Kluge, the Library of Congress established the Kluge Center in 2000 to bring together the world’s best thinkers to stimulate and energize one another, to distill wisdom from the Library’s rich resources and to interact with policymakers in Washington. For further information on the Kluge Center, visit www.loc.gov/kluge/.