Pakistan strategically needs deeper scholarship on the MENA region
https://arab.news/zzznm
In the past year, Pakistan has emerged as a country not just strategically relevant and part of the South Asian political chessboard, but also one that is becoming increasingly intertwined in the geopolitics and security dynamics of the broader Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region-- even the Horn of Africa. This Pakistani involvement in regional security affairs and the defense calculus of various regional actors is not slated to be a short-term engagement and is likely to develop into long term bilateral and multi-lateral partnerships. This development necessitates overhauling the infrastructure of knowledge production and policy making vis-à-vis MENA in order to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of this region, its states and societies and evolving security dynamics.
Pakistan has remained anchored in the political and regional security dynamics of South Asia since its independence. Yet, the country also joined middle eastern countries to form the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), a security alliance meant to curtail Soviet influence in the Middle East. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistan practically became a West Asian country and its relationship with Middle Eastern states and the broader Muslim World became even more significant. Pakistan became a prominent member of the Saudi-led Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), a Pan-Islamic political body. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the revolution in Iran and subsequent war with Iraq further integrated Pakistan deeply into the security dynamics of the region. The arrival of the Pakistani expatriate work force in the Arab Gulf States further created an economic linkage between Pakistan and these petro-dollar fuelled economies as they developed and modernized.
It is worth noting that during this time from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Pakistani academics and strategic thinkers seemed to be much more interested in understanding Middle Eastern political dynamics and producing research that gave an insightful picture of regional dynamics. Pakistan in terms of its politics and statecraft appeared as a state that was not India-centric but one that clearly had an aim to extend its foot print in the broader Islamic world. An Area Study Center dedicated to the study of Middle East was also established at the University of Balochistan in 1989. All of this suggested that an ecosystem was established to better understand and produce research on the MENA region.
Until the early 1990s, Pakistani academics and strategic thinkers seemed to be much more interested in understanding Middle Eastern political dynamics.
Umer Karim
This interest within Pakistan’s western neighbourhood and particularly MENA in research and policy quarters started to diminish after the end of the cold war. Since then, the research community has largely focused upon Pakistan’s relationship with its immediate neighbours and the US. Even within this category, objective and critical research on the nature of Pakistan’s relationship with its southwestern neighbour Iran remains scant. Research dealing with Pakistan’s relationship with Muslim countries has been laden with diplomatic niceties and adjectives. This tendency does not help in improving the understanding of politics and state-society dynamics of these countries within Pakistan and doesn’t contribute to relevant policy debates. There is also an endemic disposition to frame such research and debates in the context of Pakistan’s rivalry with India.
This has partially happened due to a lack of resources and incentives to conduct research on MENA and an aversion within Pakistan’s academic and policy circles to question the reproduction of traditional troupes. This has meant that the academic and policy community’s understanding of the region may be outdated. Therefore, political changes within the region and particularly those damaging to Pakistan’s interests often come as a shock leading to policy confusion. The worst outcome of this scholarly inertia has been the mainstreaming of conspiracy rhetoric in public and private debates concerning politics and conflicts in the MENA region.
With the signing of the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia Mutual Strategic Defence Agreement (MSDA) and the rise in Pakistan’s subsequent engagement with MENA states, the country has regained strategic relevance vis-à-vis the broader region after nearly 35 years. This also means that the expectations from Pakistan and the interest in its defence capabilities within the region’s elites is at an all-time high. These opportunities also come with the risk of Pakistan getting embroiled in intra-regional conflicts and balance of power dynamics.
In order to avoid this, Pakistan’s decision makers need to invest in building platforms that incentivize scholarly research on the region and encourage policy debates in an objective and critical manner and one that promotes regional expertise. The scholarship produced should also keep into account Pakistan’s national interest while appreciating the country’s political and economic limitations. Only by creating such an ecosystem and enhancing the indigenous knowledge base vis-à-vis the broader MENA region, can Pakistan truly take advantage of the opportunities on offer while also avoiding the pitfalls that come with this new regional clout.
- Umar Karim is a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s strategic outlook, the Saudi-Iran tussle, conflict in Syria, and the geopolitics of Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. X: @UmarKarim89
