Nuffield College, Members of the College,

Alexander Evans OBE

Gwilym Gibbon Fellow

Nuffield College
New Road
Oxford, OX1 1NF
United Kingdom

Research Interests

- International policy networks

- The evolution of policy advice to the UK government since the 1970s

- South Asian politics and international relations

- Terrorism and international security

Current Research Interests

MAY 2010 - LATEST SUMMARY

One focus at Nuffield is on the evolution of policy advice to government and on international policy networks. A book chapter has just come out on 'Informal networks and policymaking' in Terrorism, Security and Informal Networks (Edward Elgar, 2010). In September 2008 I was in Ireland for Transatlantic 2020, a new North America-Europe initiative. I jointly organised a workshop on the changing nature of policy advice at Nuffield in October 2007. I had a book chapter published in October 2005, 'On disinterest', published in Decadence (ed. Digby Anderson).

I work extensively in and on South Asia, initially on Kashmir (articles in the Washington Quarterly, Current History, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Contemporary South Asia and Asian Affairs) and on Indian foreign policy (articles in The Round Table and Foreign Policy). One recent chapter was on 'Kashmiri Exceptionalism' in The Kashmir Valley (New Delhi: Manohar, 2008). I have also reviewed books on anthropology (Contemporary South Asia, January 2010), Islamist networks (Contemporary South Asia, Spring 2007), and India/Pakistan relations (RUSI Journal, March 2007). My work on South Asia is increasingly focussed on the Pakistani diaspora and on the history of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, where I have been conducting both archival and field research.

I am editing a book on Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas that will be published by Christopher Hurst in 2011. Along with colleagues from Oxford, Harvard and Bard I am engaged in a research project comparing modes of governance in North-East and North-West India (later Pakistan) before and since 1947. We held our launch workshop on this in November 2009.

I also work on counter-terrorism and international security. Publications include an article on 'Talibanising Kashmir' in The World Today (December 2001), a book chapter on Afghanistan in Regime Change:it's been done before (April 2003), an essay on madrasahs in Foreign Affairs (January 2006) and a review article on Al Qaida's public diplomacy strategy in Asian Affairs (July 2007). My most recent article, on the rationality of choosing madrasah education, was in the Fall 2008 Harvard International Review.

In 2009-10 I have given talks at the Woodrow Wilson school at Princeton, the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, the British International Studies Association and at various events at Yale. Since 2006 I have also participated in conferences organised by the Ditchley Foundation, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin, the Centre d'etudes et de recherches internationales in Paris and Wilton Park in Sussex. I also regularly speak to NGO and business audiences.

Selected Publications

The importance of informal networks to policymakers, chapter in Terrorism, Security and the Power of Informal Networks (Edward Elgar, May 2010)

Madrasah education, Harvard International Review (Fall 2008)

Kashmiri Exceptionalism, chapter in The Kashmir Valley (ed Aparna Rao), New Delhi: Manohar, 2008

The man and the message: the world according to Osama, Asian Affairs, 2007

Understanding madrasahs, Foreign Affairs, 2006

‘Disinterest’, chapter in Decadence (ed Digby Anderson), 2005

Kashmir: a tale of two Valleys, Asian Affairs, 2005

Forecasting India’s potential, The Round Table, 2004

India, Pakistan and the prospect of war, Current History, 2002

Kashmiri Pandits: A departure from History, Contemporary South Asia, 2002

India flexes its muscles, Foreign Policy, 2002

Reducing tension is not enough, Washington Quarterly, 2001

Why peace won’t come to Kashmir, Current History, 2001

The Kashmir insurgency , Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2000

Kashmir: the past ten years, Asian Affairs, 1999

I have also published reviews in Asian Affairs, International Affairs, Conflict, Security and Development, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Millennium, Contemporary South Asia, RUSI Journal, and Round Table. I review submissions for Contemporary South Asia and Small Wars and Insurgencies, and have been a past board member of Asian Affairs and Round Table.

Current Research Interests

Biographical Sketch

Alexander Evans is a British diplomat currently on loan to the US Department of State as a senior advisor to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was previously on sabbatical at Yale as a 2009 World Fellow. He has been First Secretary Political at the British High Commissions in Islamabad and New Delhi and a member of the Policy Planning Staff, London. He worked on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's 2007 policy review, Britain in the World, and was seconded to the Consular Crisis Team managing the Lebanon evacuation in the summer of 2006.

Before joining the Foreign Office he was research director at Policy Exchange and an associate fellow at Chatham House. He was also a regular commentator for BBC World TV, CNN and Reuters. Alexander has worked for the UN in Afghanistan, and been an adjunct fellow at the Stimson Center, Washington DC. He has worked in Macedonia as a political advisor and for the OSCE. He spent two years as director of studies of a financial think-tank, the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, worked in the private office of the President of the General Medical Council, and began his career as an international policy advisor at the Adam Smith Institute.

Alexander was appointed an OBE in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List.


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