Intelligence Squared U.S. is the Oxford-style debate series where the moderator asks an evenly divided panel. More troops and a new commander have been sent to Afghanistan, and the U.S. has increased its level of support and aid to Pakistan.

The moderator John Donvan is a correspondent for ABC News Nightline. He has served over a career of more than two decades in the following capacities for ABC News: chief White House correspondent, chief Moscow correspondent, Amman bureau chief, Jerusalem correspondent and correspondent for the ABC News magazine Turning Point. Donvan's most recent major assignment was covering the war in Iraq as a unilateral reporter, for which the Chicago Sun Times named him one of the ten war stars.

Panelists for the motion:

Husain Haqqani is Pakistan's ambassador to the United States.  A trusted advisor of late Pakistani prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, Ambassador Haqqani is a professor of International Relations at Boston University and co-chair of the Hudson Institute's Project on the Future of the Muslim World as well as editor of the journal Current Trends in Islamist Thought. Haqqani came to the U.S. in 2002 as a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and as an adjunct professor at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University. He is a leading journalist, diplomat, and former advisor to Pakistani prime ministers.

Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years. Colonel Lang is a highly decorated veteran of several of America’s overseas conflicts including the war in Vietnam. He was trained and educated as a specialist in the Middle East by the U.S. Army and served in that region for many years. After retiring a second time from the government he was a business executive for ten years in a large manufacturing company operating in the Middle East and South Asia.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer who rose from the enlisted ranks.  As a soldier or civilian, he has experience in over 70 countries.  He’s the author of 24 books, including works on military and international affairs, bestselling and prize-winning novels, and an adventure-travel memoir.  Published widely as a commentator and essayist, Peters has been an opinion columnist for the New York Post since 2002.  He has covered conflict zones in Iraq, Israel and Africa, and also has affiliations with USAToday, Armed Forces Journal and Armchair General Magazine.  In March, Peters became Fox News’ first “strategic analyst.”

Panelists against the motion:

Steve Coll is president and CEO of New America Foundation, and a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine. Previously he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and senior editor at the Washington Post, serving as the paper’s managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is the author of six books including Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (2004) and The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century (2008).

John Nagl is president of the Center for a New American Security and a visiting professor in the War Studies Department at Kings College of London.  Nagl retired from the US Army after 20 years with the rank of lieutenant colonel.  He led a tank platoon in Operation Desert Storm and served as the operations officer of a tank battalion task force in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  He has taught national security studies at West Point and served as military assistant to the deputy secretary of defense.  Nagl is the author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife:  Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam and was on the writing team that produced the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual.

James Shinnwas assistant secretary of defense for Asia in 2007-2008. Before the Pentagon he served as the national intelligence officer for East Asia in 2003-2006, first at the Central Intelligence Agency and then for the director of National Intelligence. After serving in the East Asia Bureau of the U.S. Department of State in the 1970s, he spent 15 years working in high tech firms, first at Advanced Micro Devices, and then at Dialogic, which he co-founded. Shinn was senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations from 1992-1996.  He is co-author of Political Power and Corporate Control (2005).