Growing up in Pakistan, Ahsan Butt, associate professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, was interested in the roots of the genocide in east Pakistan, what is now Bangladesh. This led him on the path to joining the Schar School academic community: From Pakistan to Singapore to the United States, Butt has made a name for himself in the international security field.
At the University of Chicago, Butt learned from some of the most well-known names in the security studies field before graduating with a PhD in Political Science in 2012.
His dissertation, titled “Goodbye or See You Later? Why States Fight Some Secessionists But not Others,” was the basis for his book, Secession and Security: Explaining State Strategy Against Separatists. The book was recently named by the International Studies Association (ISA) as the 2019 International Securities Studies Section Best Book of the Year. The Connecticut-based ISA represents more than 100 countries and is dedicated to enhancing knowledge and understanding about a wide range of international security issues.
“I think I asked a big question and had a theoretical account,” Butt said. “It’s been the trend in I.R. [International Relations] and security to become less and less theoretically informed.”
While researching for his book, Butt interviewed 112 people from a variety of backgrounds.
“Representing their words in my book is my job,” he said. “If they’re telling me something, it is not out of nowhere. I have to assign them some credibility and write in a way that does them justice.”
And in writing the book, Butt learned new things not only about the topic but about himself.
“I found my worldview being challenged by talking to people I wouldn’t normally interact with such as Kashmiri Pandits regarding the war in Kashmir in the 1990s, or Israeli analysts regarding the Oslo agreements,” he said. “I was able to see the gray and have some sort of synthesis.”
Butt has appeared in numerous publications such as Foreign Policy magazine, the New York Times, Dawn.com, and more. His primary areas of research are nationalism, political violence, and South Asian policy.
“It’s relatively easy to do research here in the Washington, D.C. area,” he said. “If you’re interested in policy or politics, this is the place to be.”