Influence of Pakistan Strategic Culture on its Curricula (original) (raw)
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Pakistan's Strategic culture and foreign Policy Making
2012
Those wanting to understand Pakistan's role in 'War against Terrorism' must read this new book. It explains Pakistan's foreign policy with the help of studying its Strategic Culture; the historical development of its security perceptions and why it considers the policy it has been pursuing till at least 9/11, that is relying on religious extremists to achieve its foreign policy/security objectives. How much it has changed, and how much it has not. To really understand Pakistan's self view and the world view based on it, this book offers an alternative non centrist and mainly Pashtun perspective.
Curriculum and national identity: exploring the links between religion and nation in Pakistan
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 2010
This paper investigates the relationship between schooling and conflict in Pakistan using an identity‐construction lens. Drawing on data from curriculum documents, student responses to classroom activities, and single‐sex student focus groups, it explores how students in four state primary schools in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan, use curricula and school experiences to make sense of themselves as Pakistani. The findings suggest that the complex nexus of education, religion, and national identity tends to construct ‘essentialist’ collective identities—a single identity as a naturalized defining feature of the collective self. To promote national unity across the diverse ethnic groups comprising Pakistan, the national curriculum uses religion (Islam) as the key boundary between the Muslim Pakistani ‘self’ and the antagonist non‐Muslim ‘other’. Ironically, this emphasis creates social polarization and the normalization of militaristic and violent identities, with serious implications for social cohesion, tolerance for internal and external diversity, and gender relations.
JHSS, Vol. 13, No. 2, July to December, 2022
Though history as a discipline and historical instances are used for different agendas since centuries, it provided new grounds to 'nation building' after the emergence of Nation State in the previous colonies during the 20th century. The academicians and writers started writing and interpreting history to serve 'national interests' and promote 'national sense'. Each State tried to sort out common features in the different ethnic and social groups living in that political boundary. The creation of Pakistan in August 1947 was a sort of unique experience when Islam was used as a common factor to unite heterogeneous ethnic entities. The ideological fathers, with the colonial legacy of identity crisis tried to promote common features for the Pakistani Nation. For this purpose, the new state managers formed different commissions which provided guidelines for textbooks writing. The successive governments followed the policy which developed 'historical content' in all textbooks for 'constructing image' of different individuals, institutions and creeds. This 'insertion' in textbooks might have some positive impact in promoting 'Pakistani nation' but the process culminated in alienation of multiple ethnicities on one hand and use of historical accounts as a propaganda tool on the other hand. The present paper is an attempt to scrutinize the historical content in the textbooks of Pakistan Studies taught at secondary level in public schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The scrutiny would be dealing with two aspects: a) need; b) credibility of the material; c) presentation. The paper would cover textbooks for grade 9 and 10, published by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa textbook board.
Pakistan's Strategic Culture: Formulation of Counterterrorism Policy
2014
The Islamist attack on the twin towers changed the world, but Pakistan’s strategic culture did not change. President Musharraf publicly withdrew support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and declared discontinuation of cross-border infiltration in Indian-held Kashmir. In reality, support continued to certain sections of the Afghan Taliban, and acts of terrorism in India, exemplified the facetious transformation in strategic culture. The confusion in stance left a void in strategic culture and the strategic environment. Pakistan’s strategy of sub-conventional warfare has led to a backlash inside the country, in the form of Islamist subversion of the rule of law. The failure of the state to formulate a coherent counterterrorism policy has given way to non-state actors. This policy void has endangered the country’s national identity and territorial integrity. In the absence of such a policy, Islamism festers. Resultantly, the state is faced with an Islamist take over. This has consequenc...
Pakistan's Strategic Culture: Implications for How Pakistan Perceives and Counters Threats
Pakistan remains a staunchly revisionist state that both continues to assert territorial equities in Kashmir and seeks to resist India’s rise in the international system. Its revisionism motivated it to start wars in 1947–48, 1965, and 1999, all of which it failed to win, as well as to sustain a proxy war in Kashmir, the most recent campaign of which began in 1989. Pakistan has adopted several strategies to manage its security environment, including ideological tools, the pursuit of strategic depth in Afghanistan, and the use of proxy fighters under its expanding nuclear umbrella. Pakistan continues to pursue these strategies even though they are very unlikely to succeed and have imposed a high cost on the state. Much of its behavior, however, can be explained by the strategic culture of the Pakistan Army. This culture is characterized by four beliefs: (1) that Pakistan is an insecure and incomplete state, (2) that Afghanistan is a source of instability, (3) that India rejects the two-nation theory and seeks to dominate or destroy Pakistan, and (4) that India is a regional hegemon that must be resisted. The Pakistan Army controls most levers of power with respect to national security and foreign policy, as well as domestic policies that influence these domains. Moreover, this strategic culture is enduring and unlikely to change, as will be demonstrated by a study of Pakistani military publications.
Journal of Advanced Military Studies, 2022
This article examines the early foundations of the strategic culture of the Pakistan Army. By exploring the impact of the partition of British India in 1947 and the First Kashmir War of 1947–48, the article identifies the pivotal factors in the development of strategic culture of Pakistan. In also examining Pakistani fears of a “vengeful” Hindu India and a persistence in the belief of discredited martial race theories as well as the idea of a Muslim military exceptionalism, the article concludes that the foundation of this culture remains evident while it is also malleable to contemporaneous events.