Professors Jeffrey M. Bale and Sharad Joshi of the program in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies put together a panel discussion open to the community last week (May 4) to offer their perspectives on the “war on terrorism” and Pakistan in light of the death of Usama bin Ladin.

The discussion concluded that the death of Bin Ladin is a morale blow to al-Qa’ida Central, whose organizational and operational effects are not yet clear, but that it is likely to lead to the growing importance of regional al-Qa’ida-affiliated groups. In addition, the fact that Bin Ladin was able to hide out in Abbottabad, which is very close to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, demonstrated the likely links between elements of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and various jihadist terrorist groups, including  al-Qa’ida.