The forces behind and the effects of the Sept.11 terrorist attacks are continually being brought into the light by the political science department's lecture series.

On Nov. 6, Robert Wirsing of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies delivered "The Global War Against Terrorism: Implications for the Indian Subcontinent."

Wirsing's lecture, one of six planned lectures for this year, was sponsored by the political science department.

"It seems to me that this issue is so significant in so many different directions that you have to talk about it," said Hank Kennedy, a political science professor. "What we tried to do with this series is to bring people that are known experts who will be able to comment meaningfully on certain aspects of post-Sept. 11," he said. Kennedy is also a member of the lecture series committee.

Wirsing's message struck at the core of the problems facing Indian and Pakistani relations today, as well as the role that the United States should have in the region in the future.

"The immediate effects (of Sept. 11) were to restore the U.S.-Pakistan alliance, which was moribund for some years ¯ they were really at their lowest ever," Wirsing said. "Also, because the U.S. and India had already been moving towards a close relationship, the U.S. was immediately faced with a dilemma: how can I build linkages with Pakistan while I simultaneously continue to give momentum to Indo-U.S. relations? This dilemma was furthered because of the Indians viewing the Pakistanis as their mortal enemy ¯ as the gravest terrorist threat on the planet." he said.

Wirsing, in addition to identifying the effects of Sept. 11 on the region, argued that the U.S.-led war against terrorism, which won the support of both India and Pakistan, unintentionally created a brief opportunity for reconciliation between the two countries.

"In that (the U.S.-led global war against terrorism) won the support and cooperation simultaneously of India and Pakistan, in effect making them, willingly or unwillingly, 'allies' also of one another, opened a small window of opportunity towards India-Pakistan reconciliation," he said.

Wirsing attributed the possibility of a lost peace among India and Pakistan to anti-Americanism, a frail democracy in both countries and the ever-looming Kashmir conflict.

Wirsing argued that the United States, in accordance with the current global war on terrorism, "can accomplish far more for both itself and for South Asia, indeed for all of Asia, by focusing its efforts in regard to the region's problems upon construction ¯ by lending its hand to the building of 'bridges of friendship,' so to speak," he said.

Kennedy hopes to continue the series. "What we're really trying to do in the long term is establish this as an event that will go on year after year," he said.