Pakistan's Political Labyrinths: Military, society and terror

237 Pages·2015·2.14 MB·English

by  Kalia

Pakistan’s Political Labyrinths
This book explores Pakistan from different vantage points. It examines a variety
of events in contemporary Pakistan through a comprehensive analysis of identity
and power politics, media landscapes, military recruitment, role of madrasahs,
terrorism and militancy, and civil war, as well as outlines future trajectories. It
studies themes such as Pakistan’s relationship with India, the legacy of Jinnah,
gender and fundamentalism, and urbanization and unrest that have plagued the
northern areas. It further looks at the nation after the capture of Osama bin
Laden and the changing nature of its relationship with the US in its aftermath.
Including contributions from experts in the field and policymakers across the
world, this volume will interest scholars and researchers on Pakistan studies,
politics and international relations. It will also appeal to government think tanks.
Ravi Kalia is Professor of History at the City College of New York and
specializes in South Asian studies. He is designated as Distinguished Role Model
by the Asian Alumni Group and is recipient of the Distinguished Service Award
by the City College of New York.
Pakistan’s Political Labyrinths
Military, society and terror
Edited by Ravi Kalia
First published 2016
by Routledge
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© 2016 Ravi Kalia
The right of Ravi Kalia to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and
of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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ISBN: 978-1-138-92655-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68319-5 (ebk)
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Contents
List of contributors
Introduction
1 Pakistan: issues of self-identity and parity with India
Aparna Pande
2 Riding the tiger: the threat to Pakistan from terrorism
J. Andrew Greig
3 Pakistan’s power game and the new media landscape
Gilles Boquérat
4 Militant recruitment in Pakistan: a new look at the militancy–madrasah
connection
C. Christine Fair
5 Destabilizing elements: the Punjabi militant threat to Pakistan
Stephen Tankel
6 The battle for Karachi: changing patterns of a permanent civil war
Laurent Gayer
7 Military rule: facilitating factors and future prospects
Steven Barracca
8 Women at risk: militancy in Pakistan
Tahmina Rashid
9 At the margins of Pakistan: political relationships between Gilgit-
Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Martin Sökefeld
Index
Contributors
Steve Barracca is Associate Professor of Government at Eastern Kentucky
University, where he teaches courses on comparative politics and political
theory. His research focuses on democratization and civil–military relations
in Latin America and in Pakistan.
Gilles Boquérat holds a PhD in History from the University of Paris 1-Sorbonne
and is specialized on South Asian affairs. He has spent a number of years in
India (Jawaharlal Nehru University, French Centre for Human Sciences, New
Delhi) and in Pakistan (Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad). He has also
been in charge of the South Asia Program at the French Institute of
International Relations and is now associated with the Foundation for
Strategic Research in Paris.
C. Christine Fair is Assistant Professor at Georgetown University at the Center
for Peace and Security Studies (CPASS) within the Edmund A. Walsh School
of Foreign Service. She has authored, among other publications, The
Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (2008),
and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security
issues in South Asia.
Laurent Gayer is Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique (CNRS, France), posted at the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches
Internationales (CERI), Paris. He is the author of the recently published
Karachi: Ordered Disorder and the Struggle for the City (2014).
J. Andrew Greig retired from the US Foreign Service with the United States
Information Agency and the Department of State. He served as senior
country desk officer for Pakistan and as an analyst in the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research. His overseas postings included France, India, and
Turkey. He has a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in South
Asian History.
Aparna Pande is Research Fellow and Director of Hudson Institute’s Initiative on
the Future of India and South Asia. She is the author of Explaining Pakistan’s
Foreign Policy: Escaping India (2011). Her major field of interest is South Asia,
with a special focus on India, Pakistan, foreign policy, security studies,
religion in politics, and political Islam.
Tahmina Rashid is Associate Professor in International Studies, at the University
of Canberra, Australia. She is the author of Contested Representations:
Punjabi Women in Feminist Debates in Pakistan (2006).
Martin Sökefeld is Professor and Head of the Department of Social and Cultural
Anthropology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. His recent
publications include Struggling for Recognition: The Alevi Movement in
Germany and in Transnational Space (2008).
Stephen Tankel is Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at
American University and a non-resident scholar in the South Asia Program at
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is currently on leave,
working as an Advisor for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs at the
Department of Defense. He is the author of Storming the World Stage: The
Story of Lashkar-e-Taiba (2011).
Introduction
This volume follows the earlier one, Pakistan: From the Rhetoric of Democracy to
the Rise of Militancy, published in the spring of 2011.
Even as the earlier volume was in the production process, a series of events
occurred that underscored the enormous structure of the Pakistani state and its
Establishment. And equally, the growing distrust between the United States and
Pakistan as its ally in the war on terror. On 27 January 2011, Raymond Davis, a
CIA contractor, killed two reportedly armed men who tried to rob him in Lahore,
the capital of Pakistani Punjab. Davis was arrested for the alleged crime – thus
saved from a lynching mob – but the episode quickly gained byzantine
proportions. On the one hand, it exposed America’s expanding network of CIA
operatives working clandestinely in Pakistan, and on the other, it revealed
America’s growing distrust of its non-NATO ally. For the Pakistani
Establishment, the Davis affair was emblematic of American arrogance. Davis
ultimately left Pakistan after the Obama administration paid blood money to the
families of the victims.
On 2 May 2011, the US special forces raided Abbottabad, the cantonment town
founded by the English General James Abbott in 1853 and that now is home to
the Pakistan Military Academy, killing Osama bin Laden in his mansion. Instead
of investigating how bin Laden came to live there for several years, the military
took a nationalistic stance by focusing on the violation of Pakistani sovereignty
by the US forces. The Obama administration, weary of its relations with Pakistan,
elected not to press the point. There is thinking in certain academic and policy
quarters that, given Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, it is safer to keep Pakistan in an
embrace rather than letting it spin out on its own.
In retaliation, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) disclosed the identity of the
American CIA station chief in Pakistan one week after the Abbottabad raid. A
few weeks later, the Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahjad was abducted and killed