Hussain Nadim

Education

Nadim returned from Australia after completing a PhD. He has said he graduated from Cambridge. He has said he has studied only international relations and political science. [1][3]

Career

Nadim has said that after his studies abroad he wanted to work in the public sector. He has said that if he was coming to Pakistan, he did not want to sell Coke or water in the corporate sector. He decided to join the government at the Planning Commission. He has said a person who gave him the opportunity to join the Planning Commission also mentored him. He has said he did a lot of projects for the youth, including internship programs. [3]

Nadim has said he previously worked at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and also worked at the Wilson Center earlier in his career. He has said he has experience working in think tanks. He has said government work pays poorly and is frustrating, but lets a person make small changes. He has said he has worked with a few politicians and is friends with some of them. [1][3]

He has said most of his work had been in policy, including work with the government. He has said he does not have a technical background but has done a lot of data work, and that he has a talent for analytical thinking and a good design sense. Nadim has said he asked what the future looked like and what his core talent was. He has said the game was bigger than national security or policy, so he wanted to work more on technology. He has said he ended up in Silicon Valley, that much of his work is done there, and that he talks with people working in AI there. [1]

Islamabad Policy Research Institute

Nadim has said he undertook reforms of IPRI in the last couple of years. He has said he wanted to make the organisation a new one, powered by emerging technologies and data tools. He has said he hired young people to reform IPRI. He has said IPRI is currently under the National Security Advisor. [1][3]

Nadim has said a "3D policy" was adopted, which he calls datafication, digitalization and disruption, and that he built a 3D framework of datafication, digitalization and disruption. He has said one of the first things he did in the disruption part was to change the HR, and that major reforms were undertaken on the HR and young individuals were brought in. He believes that to change an organization or a country, one must change its HR. He has said data-driven policies were undertaken to change the organization. He has said 40 to 100 page reports no longer work, and that press releases began to be converted into videos and infographics. [1][3]

Nadim has said IPRI had never been ranked in a global think tank ranking in the 20 years before his reforms. He has said that in the seventh month the organisation was ranked 74 in the global think tank list published by U Penn. He has said IPRI became a premier organisation, and that no government department failed to come and request things from it, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Information Ministry. He has said the vision was to become an institute from Pakistan that plays at the highest forum. He has said IPRI can become a top 10 think tank in the world, and that its name is heard across Washington. [1][3]

G5IO

Nadim has said he built G5iO, starting in 2019, and that his team established G5IO. He has said IPRI set up the G5 Internet Observatory. He has said they want to study how the internet and digital media are changing policy, including the new challenges and opportunities. He has said a team of seven or eight people, mostly data scientists, was deployed for this work. [1][2][3]

Nadim has said G5IO is cutting edge. He has said the Stanford Internet Observatory, the Oxford Internet Institute and the Atlantic Council DFR Lab come before G5IO in this field. He has said nobody is studying how digital data and research are shaping Pakistani society. He has said his team's analysis found 65% artificial bot activity. He has said about 20 people in Afghanistan, sitting in teams, tweeted and retweeted each other. [2][3]

Government committee on Big Tech

Nadim has said he was part of the Prime Minister's special committee on Big Tech in the last government. He has said that while he was talking with TikTok about opening an office, another arm of the state was banning the app. He has said he and others realised the system was working in silos, and that nobody knew about the taxation system of Pakistan. He has said setting up a company for foreign investment needed 58 NOCs, and that the PTI government reduced that number to 37. He has said a person can sit in Pakistan and open a company in Dubai, and that a Pakistani citizen cannot do the same thing inside Pakistan. [1]

Views on governance and the economy

Nadim has said Pakistan's regulatory framework is one of its biggest problems. He says the economy is a fixable problem and not rocket science, and that economies can be fixed in three to five years. He says all that needs to be done is to fix the basics, such as NOCs and the taxation system. He says countries with broken economies can be fixed, but countries with broken human spirits cannot. [1]

Nadim says Pakistan's basic challenge is defining its national interest, and that Pakistan is running without having defined it. He says Pakistan's fundamental challenges include defining its national interest and pushing back elite capture. He says elite capture began the day the state was formed. He says Pakistan's policy framing is about avoiding collapse, not becoming prosperous. He says Pakistan's policies have been Islamabad-centric since the capital moved from Karachi to Islamabad. [1]

Nadim says corruption is not only a financial problem, and that corruption kills human consciousness. He says he once wrote an article arguing that corruption was not a problem, before changing his view. He says blockchain could solve every corruption problem in Pakistan. He says the way Pakistan has treated its women is not something to be proud of. [1]

Nadim says Pakistan's politicians are not incompetent or stupid, and that they lack good intentions toward the national interest. He says Pakistan's leaders have pitched the country as a state on the brink of collapse for 70 years. He says Pakistan's foreign policy for 70 years has relied on a victim mentality and on frightening others. He says the country is heading for a hard landing and that this is imminent, and that Pakistan has been in a free fall for some years. He says a Bangladesh-style scenario would be a good case if Pakistan does not act. [1]

Nadim says the choice is between holding elections and facing civil war. He says elections are a way to bring legitimate public representatives to the table. He says elections will not bring change while the electoral system stays deeply flawed and power sits elsewhere. He says elections can fix the social and political collapse, but not the economic collapse. He says about 11 million voters were added since the last elections. He says he has absolute faith that the situation in this country will be turned around. [1][3]

Views on technology, youth and reform

Nadim says technology is no longer mechanical and should be accepted as such. He says technology has created its own reality, language and ethos, and that the pace of growth has become so accelerated that it is beyond control. He describes a sentient machine as one trained on data that can improvise and give results nobody expected. He says human decision making has an inherent confirmation bias, and that AI government is a definite future. He says Pakistan could become a champion in delegating decision making on some fundamentals. [1]

Nadim says Pakistan has a choice about whether it becomes a tech ghetto. He says Pakistan can move from analog to 5G directly, skipping 2G, 3G and 4G, and that it has an opportunity to adopt new technology early, because it does not have a running system in place. He says technology and new industries are anti-status quo and challenge those who control politics, government and the economy. He says Pakistan has top-class resources and talent, and can become a top 10 economy in the next five to ten years. [1]

Nadim says the future of learning is to download knowledge from the internet, and that in the future robots will work for people. He says that as education minister he would seriously question why universities are needed. He says ideas of identity will change within ten years. He has said graduates see no hope after university. [1][2]

Nadim has put the share of Pakistan under the age of 30 at about 70 percent, and at about 65 percent in another remark. He says Pakistan needs young leadership that understands the digital economy and technology, and that he would like to see people aged 30 to 35 leading finance ministries. He believes young people must be given power and opportunity, or they will take it. He says leaders should train young staff and then give them autonomy. He has said the current government is working well on a focus on youth. [1][2][3]

Nadim says reform should be designed for the future, not for the present, and that the key to reform is bringing in talent that can see the future. He says changing a minister's office flows down through the bureaucracy. He says transformations do not take decades in the digital age, and not even five years. [1]

Nadim believes change comes only through ideas. He says think tanks keep the institutional memory of the state, and that they are the ideas-producing machines of this age. He has said Pakistan should respect its own scholars, and that fake news should be answered with data and evidence. He says TikTok has connected rural Pakistan with the global world. [2][3]

Views on Afghanistan

Nadim has said the Taliban takeover reflects a failure of the Afghan government more than a Taliban victory, and that the Afghan government lost its chance at a stable and graceful exit. He has said a specific Afghan elite backed by the Americans monopolised the narrative, and he says the US-backed Afghan elite did not deliver development in 20 years. He has said Afghanistan's political elite fought one another for seven to eight years after King Zahir Shah was toppled, and that Afghanistan's parliament includes many parties, from local to regional. He has said no single party or person can rule Afghanistan, and he says there can be no inclusive government in Afghanistan. He says he does not see a future for Ashraf Ghani. [2][3]

Nadim has said the Taliban won support mainly through a speedy justice system, and that they had an upper edge in the narrative war. He has said the Taliban are much more structured as a political force than previously thought, and that they have a long-term, patient approach to war. He has said power in the region is defined by how long one can keep fighting. He has said the Afghan Taliban is a ground movement whose aim is not expansion, and that most Taliban ranks are people under 25. He has said the Taliban seem more inclusive than before, and that they have stated that Afghan soil will not be used for external activity. [2]

Nadim has said the Taliban would probably retain the Afghan bureaucracy, that regions would have power to run their own affairs, and that the Taliban cannot run one system for all of Afghanistan. He has said the takeover so far has been soft, that it is too early to say whether there will be a refugee crisis, and that uncertainty can trigger refugee crises. He says there will be an inner war once the US leaves. He has said that for ordinary people in Afghanistan it is not a liberal or conservative issue but a matter of life. He has said he hopes Afghanistan reaches stability, peace and a good transition. [2][3]

Nadim has said the TTP emerged from Waziristan and is predominantly Mehsud. He has said the TTP's demands are aggressive against the state, and that its recent statements use classic post-colonial language. He has said the TTP does not have a future, and that it is more or less finished. [2]

Views on Pakistan and the United States

Nadim has said the US had a long disconnect from ground realities. He has said America lost the war before it even started, and that the US went into Afghanistan with zero understanding of the region. He has said Washington analysts cannot tell Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras apart. He says the US entered Afghanistan with no plan to exit. [2][3]

Nadim has said Pakistan and America have had strategic ties throughout, including the Cold War, and that Pakistan's foreign relations rest on personalities rather than institutions. He has said the relationship should be desecuritised and balanced with economic and people-to-people relationships. He has said the US needs Pakistan ten times more than Pakistan needs the US, and that Pakistan can facilitate between China and America. He has said Pakistan's culture values friendship over strategic alliances. [2]

Nadim has said Pakistan provided the largest service to the Western community in the Cold War, and that Pakistan arrested 900 Al-Qaeda operators. He says Pakistan handed over more than 800 Al-Qaeda operatives, and that Pakistan has been America's truest friend. He argues that Pakistan's core foreign policy after 9/11 aimed to save America from its own wrath. He says Pakistan hosted 3 million Afghan refugees, and he believes the world owes Pakistan an apology for its role in Afghanistan. He believes Pakistan has played the most critical part in the Afghan peace dialogue. [2][3]

Nadim has said Pakistan has no vested interest, and calls the opposite view nonsense. He says Pakistan has no strategic depth to gain in Afghanistan, and that Pakistan does not want Afghanistan split into more than a hundred militias. He has said he does not accept that the Afghan people are against Pakistan. He says the border mainly gives peace of mind rather than real security. He has said the international community needs to take responsibility and support Pakistan. [2][3]

Timeline

2019

Nadim says he built G5iO, starting this year.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Pakistan's politicians aren't incompetent — they're not trying . Thought Behind Things , 2023-04-14.
2. Why the Taliban took Afghanistan in days, not months . Thought Behind Things , 2021-08-16.
3. Hussain Nadim on rebuilding a think tank from inside the system, the great-game read of Afghanistan, and why Joe Biden isn't calling . Thought Behind Things , 2021-07-02.