Clearly I’m stepping up in the world of conspiracy theories

Today I received the following e-mail query:  There is a lot of talk about in Pakistan media that American think tanks have issued a map about dividing Pakistan. I have read some where that you were on that team. If you have made such a report can you kindly send me a copy of that ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Today I received the following e-mail query:  There is a lot of talk about in Pakistan media that American think tanks have issued a map about dividing Pakistan. I have read some where that you were on that team. If you have made such a report can you kindly send me a copy of that report and map, I ll also like to know about the research mathodolgy of that report. If I am wrong about that can you kindly give me any whereabouts from where I can get that report. Based on press reports, I suspect that this query was about the Pakistan Policy Working Group, which did release a report in September about Pakistan.  I have no idea why it took three months for this to permeate the English-language Pakistani press. Anyway, for the record, I was not a part of that report.  Indeed, the only way I would ever be a part of a report on Pakistan is if a crackerjack terrorist group managed to knock off the plethora of economists, political scientists, and sociologists who actually know something about Pakistan.  That is all. 

Today I received the following e-mail query: 

There is a lot of talk about in Pakistan media that American think tanks have issued a map about dividing Pakistan. I have read some where that you were on that team. If you have made such a report can you kindly send me a copy of that report and map, I ll also like to know about the research mathodolgy of that report. If I am wrong about that can you kindly give me any whereabouts from where I can get that report.

Based on press reports, I suspect that this query was about the Pakistan Policy Working Group, which did release a report in September about Pakistan.  I have no idea why it took three months for this to permeate the English-language Pakistani press. Anyway, for the record, I was not a part of that report.  Indeed, the only way I would ever be a part of a report on Pakistan is if a crackerjack terrorist group managed to knock off the plethora of economists, political scientists, and sociologists who actually know something about Pakistan.  That is all. 

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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