Hudson Institute will convene a panel to discuss politics in Bangladesh and the country’s upcoming elections. Opening remarks will be delivered by Congressman Jim Banks (R-IN). Panelists will include Liberty South Asia’s Seth Oldmixon, the Middle East Forum’s Sam Westrop, and Abha Shanker of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. The panel will be moderated by Ambassador Husain Haqqani, Hudson Institute director for South and Central Asia programming.
With annual GDP growth rates around 7%, Bangladesh is one of Asia’s most successful economies. Yet on the political front, the country faces many challenges. With the rising influence of Islamist groups like Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in the country’s politics and accusations of authoritarianism against Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s current and longest-reigning Prime Minister, the outcome of the December 30 elections will be important for both Bangladeshis and the region.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN)
Congressman Jim Banks has been representing Indiana’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. He currently serves on the House Armed Services; Veterans Affairs; and Education and the Workforce Committees. Congressman Banks served in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a supply corps officer and took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate in 2014 and 2015 to deploy to Afghanistan during Operations Enduring Freedom and Freedom’s Sentinel. He received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his military leadership in Afghanistan.
Seth Oldmixon
Seth Oldmixon is the founder of Liberty South Asia, an independent, privately-funded campaign dedicated to supporting religious freedom and political pluralism in South Asia. A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Bangladesh, Oldmixon’s analysis has been featured on MSNBC and in The Hill, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, The Diplomat, and The Cipher Brief. He is the co-author of Bangladesh on the Brink: Mapping the Evolving Social Geography of Political Violence, published by The RESOLVE Network, an initiative of the Global Research Network on Conflict.
Sam Westrop
Sam Westrop has led Islamist Watch since March 2017, when the Middle East Forum absorbed the counter-extremism unit of Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), where he was previously the research director. His writings have appeared at such publications as National Review, National Post, The Hill, UAE’s The National, and Pakistan’s Dunya News; and he has appeared on dozens of television and radio stations, including the BBC and Al Jazeera. In 2016, he contributed a chapter – on the Deobandi movement in the United Kingdom and its relationship to extant Islamist groups – to a study of Deobandi Islam published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Abha Shankar
Abha Shankar has close to 15 years’ experience in the fields of intelligence and counter-terrorism. She currently serves as a Senior Intelligence Analyst at the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT), a non-profit research group in Washington, DC, that investigates the operations, funding, activities and front groups of terrorist and extremist groups in the United States and around the world. Shankar has advised senior-level officials on terrorism and security issues, and directs research projects providing critical information on security issues to congressional committees and federal and state government agencies.
Husain Haqqani
A Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director for South and Central Asia, Ambassador Husain Haqqani served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008-2011 and is widely credited with managing a difficult partnership during a critical phase in the global war on terrorism. His distinguished career in government includes serving as an advisor to four Pakistani Prime ministers, Yusuf Raza Gilani, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. He also served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to Sri Lanka in 1992-93. He has written three books, including his most recent India vs Pakistan: Why Can’t We Just Be Friends? (Juggernaut, 2016).
