A public defence of a PhD thesis titled, “Role of Maritime Strategy in National Security: A Case Study of Gwadar” was held at National Defence University, Islamabad. Cdr (r) Azhar Ahmad highlighted the importance of his research and convinced the audience about the need of paying more attention to the maritime sector.
He stressed the fact that nations which neglected their maritime sector often remained at the mercy of others. For a country like Pakistan with such a vast coast and geo-strategic location, it is imperative to have a vibrant and effective maritime strategy, to benefit from its maritime potential. Pakistan needs to revamp its maritime sector and Gwadar is just the right catalyst to provide the foundation as well as the stimulus. The audience and the examiners lauded the efforts of the researcher and approved his work for award of a PhD degree.
It may be noted that NDU launched its PhD programme in 2009 and Dr Azhar Ahmad has become the first graduate of the pioneer batch. Besides, he is also the first to have earned the coveted degree of PhD in the discipline of ‘Peace and Conflict Studies’ in Pakistan. He is currently working as a “Distinguished Researcher” with a Chinese think tank and a “Senior Research Fellow” with the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad.