Eight Months in the Life of Yahya Kemal

With the end of British rule in the Indian sub-continent in 1947 and the establishment of the new state of Pakistan, the traditionally close relations between the Turks and the Indian Muslims were consolidated with the appointment of Turkey's senior poet-diplomat, Yahya Kemal Beyatl?, as the f?rst Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Pakistan. The ageing Ambassador filled this position for eight months under difficult circumstances until after the death of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Based on Yahya Kemal's letters and other available information, the article attempts to capture the atmosphere surrounding Yahya Kemal's sojourn in Karachi.     

Pakistan: Crisis of a Frontline State

For more than 50 years, Pakistan has functioned as imperialism's “frontline state.” The military has remained the country's dominant political player and the basic precepts of bourgeois democracy remain conspicuous by their absence. Since the military coup in October 1999, the configuration of power in Pakistan has become subject to serious internal contradictions, in large part because of the “war on terror” and the loss of public prestige of the military. These contradictions have intensified in the wake of a lawyer-led street movement sparked by the military top brass' dismissal of the country's chief justice in March 2007. Since then the country's most well-known politician, Benazir Bhutto, has been assassinated and her Pakistan People's Party has swept to power in general elections held in February 2008. However, the crisis of the frontline state has not ebbed, and the oligarchic system of power remains subject to rupture.     

The Iraq treaty, 1930

India's relations with the Gulf countries started to flourish in the 1990s after India succeeded in de-hyphenating Pakistan from its policy toward the Gulf. Though Pakistan remained a factor as it continued to raise Kashmir and internal situation in India at multilateral forums such as OIC to evoke anti-India sentiments, it did not remain an underlying factor in as was the case during the Cold War era. In the contemporary dynamics, when India-Gulf relations are progressing toward strategic partnerships, Pakistan has re-emerged as a factor but its nature has changed. As highlighted in the joint statements issued during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits to the Gulf countries since May 2014, India can now put pressure on Pakistan by highlighting its policy of sponsoring terrorism. This was evident when the Arab Gulf countries condemned the Pathankot (January 2016) and Uri (September 2016) terrorist attacks. India's relations with the Arab Gulf and other Middle Eastern countries are independent of their engagements with Pakistan and India-Pakistan tension, but New Delhi has stepped up efforts to raise the issue of cross-border terrorism and use of religion to incite terror activities against India during its engagements with these countries. It underlines the growing convergence between India and Arab Gulf countries over regional issues and the ability of India to isolate Pakistan over issues related to terrorism.     

CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES AND THE TREATMENT OF PAKISTAN’S RELIGIOUS MINORITIES

Although Pakistan was created as a homeland for South Asia's Muslims, religious freedom was one of its founding principles. Seventy years later, Pakistan is better known for religious extremism and the persecution of Muslim and non-Muslim religious minorities. Pakistan's blasphemy law is a state-sanctioned tool of religious oppression used to target members of minority faith communities whether Ahmadiya, Christian, Hindu, or Shiite, as well as Sunnis who criticize the law. This paper discusses the blasphemy law and other laws that have led to the state of religious oppression in Pakistan.     

Editor's Note: Special Feature – China,India, and the Future of Great-Power Politics

Abstract

This review essay is based upon Shuja Nawaz' Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within and Ayesha Siddiqa's Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy. Based upon these two author's insightful volumes, this essay explores the roles of both military and civilian actors and institutions in the undermining of Pakistan's constitutional rule of law. While conventional wisdom places the onus disproportionately upon the military's penchant for interventionism, this review essay contends that the army has intervened only with the active assistance of civilian institutions which are subsequently further eroded with every military takeover. Thus any long-term solution to democratize Pakistan must focus both upon the army's presumed “right” and “obligation” to intervene in Pakistan's political system while simultaneously strengthening and professionalizing those civilian institutions needed for providing good governance with accountability.     

PAKISTAN (REVIEW ARTICLE)

Victoria Schofield reviews two books on Pakistan:- the third, much revised, edition of Owen Bennett Jones’ Pakistan In the Eye of the Storm and Hilary Synnott's Transforming Pakistan, Ways out of Instability. Both books are arranged thematically and are full of useful information. They underline how important it is for outsiders to understand the course of recent events. For even though the problems facing Pakistan can in the end only be resolved by Pakistanis, outsiders undoubtedly have a crucial role to play.     

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization,trade, and the roles of Iran,India and Pakistan

This article seeks to explore the implications of Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) engagement with India, Pakistan and Iran. Not in terms of power-politics or as a counterbalance to the USA as this has been explored elsewhere, but what practical problems such an expanded organization could help solve, what opportunities it could realize, and how SCO's engagement in trade is a function of favourable political and bilateral developments in the region. It is argued here that the trade, infrastructure and energy sectors are of particular importance and that substantial potential gains could be realized if coordination is improved. Nevertheless, it is also recognized that China, Russia, Pakistan, India and Iran may have lower standards of democratic development and economic transparency than the West. What is the motivation behind the SCO's engagement with India, Pakistan and Iran? Should this engagement be conceived only in terms of balancing US unipolarity or are there legitimate concerns of increasing regional cooperation in Eurasia?     

IDENTITIES AND THE STATE IN PAKISTAN: A STUDY OF MENTALITY

This paper examines Pakistan's identity as a state, a religious community, a developmental enterprise, and a primordial society. It argues that over time Pakistan's state and developmental identities have weakened while its religious and primordial identities have gained in strength. This change in the balance has grave implications for Pakistan in terms of the working of the state and its legitimacy in the eyes of its own people. There is therefore a need to rehabilitate the state and developmental identities at a functional level, which means investing in improving the quality of governance and policy planning in Pakistan over the long-term.     

ASIAN WAR MACHINES

ABSTRACT

The South Asian security landscape is increasingly dominated by a complex four-way dynamic between India, Pakistan, China, and the United States. The stresses and strains of the relationships between these states directly affect the prospects for peace and prosperity for almost half of humanity. This article describes some of the military contours of this landscape, with a focus on strategic postures, weapon acquisitions, and the role of nuclear weapons. It maps the India–Pakistan arms race over the past decade, the economic constraints on the two states, the role of China and the United States as weapons suppliers, and the risk and consequences for nuclear war. The authors then look at India's relationship with China, which is marked by both cooperation and competition, and the rise of China as a close military, political, and economic ally of Pakistan. While the United States has had long-standing cooperative relationships with both India and Pakistan, these relationships have been undergoing major shifts over the last two decades. U.S. concerns about China's increasing military and economic power have also intensified over this period as well. Of particular significance has been the effort to create a U.S.–India strategic partnership to balance and contain a rising China, which may become a central feature of the emerging global order. This article also offers a brief overview of what is publicly known about the nuclear arsenals of the four countries, ongoing production of weapons-usable fissile materials in Pakistan and India, as well as the race to build longer-range missiles.     

AFGHAN REFUGEES: THE IMPACT ON PAKISTAN

One of the most important arenas that have been profoundly affected by the security situation in Afghanistan is Pakistan's internal security environment. The instability in Afghanistan has had a negative spill-over effect on Pakistan's domestic security scenario, as the Afghan quagmire poses immense implications on Pakistan's domestic framework. One of the important consequences of the Afghan conflict since the 1970s has been the massive inflow of the Afghan refugee population to the neighbouring Pakistan which in following years has brought about a number of demographic and security challenges to the Pakistani society. Therefore along with a number of factors, at this present juncture, Afghan refugees have also become a principal factor in determining Pakistan's Afghanistan policy.     

THE AMERICAN RESPONSE TO PAKISTANI AND IRANIAN NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: A STUDY IN PARADOX

This article explores the paradox in the reaction of the United States to the two different proliferation cases: Pakistan's proliferation and Iran's weaponization effort. The article tries to find answer to the following key question; why the United States, as one of the guardians of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) which would prefer to see a region that is entirely free of weapons of mass destruction, ultimately has accepted Pakistan's proliferation, while imposed considerable amount of pressure to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The paper posits that number of factors explain such differences; first, and at the theoretical level, Pakistan was never considered an “irrational” and “messianic” state like Iran, but regarded as a country with a certain degree of cold-war type nuclear rationality. Second and at the applied level, while Pakistan was a US ally with not having a history of challenging the United States, Iran has been considered enemy and a threat toward the US interest.

Third, while Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was viewed as a defensive mean against overwhelming strength of India, Iran's possible nuclear arsenal considered to be for offensive uses against the United States and Israel. The fourth factor pertains to the consequences of proliferation, which is what happens when Iran's neighboring countries may feel threatened by Iranian nuclear weapon and proceed to develop their own arsenal. Fifth factor deals with the possible Iran's temptation to give some nuclear material to a terror group in which made the United States serious in preventing Iran's weaponization. Last but not least, Israel was not involved to pressure and agitate against Pakistan, while it was applied a tremendous pressure against Iran to prevent it from achieving nuclear weapons.     

The NPT,the CTBT and Pakistan: Explaining the Non-adherence Posture of a De Facto Nuclear State

Abstract

Pakistan represents a case of non-compliance to the two most important treaties on non-proliferation—The Non-Proliferation Treaty and The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This article surveys the changing contour of Pakistan's policy approach towards the NPT and the CTBT, and explains the underlying motivations and implications of the Pakistani postures. It analyses why Pakistan, despite supporting the final drafts, ultimately refused to sign the NPT in 1968 and the CTBT in 1996, and why it subsequently resisted strong international pressure maintained a non-adherence posture and towards these two documents. Finally, this article draws some general lessons from the Pakistani case.     

Engaging the youth – citizenship and political participation in Pakistan

The article explores the issue of youth political participation in Pakistan. In the light of the attention devoted by the Pakistani press to the youth vote in the 2013 Pakistani elections, this article discusses young Pakistanis’ articulation of their views on mainstream politics and their views of the state, and attempts to answer the question as to why young people in Pakistan are disillusioned with mainstream politics. The article focuses in particular on the perceptions held by those in their late teens to late 20s. Since 59 per cent of Pakistan's population is below the age of 24 and overall over 67 per cent of the population is under 30, their views on the state, rights, responsibilities and their concept of citizenship are a window into how Pakistan is likely to develop. The focus of the article is on voices that are rarely heard and which stand in stark contrast to the solutions offered by the institutional literature. The research is located in the wider discussion of the concept of citizenship and builds on previous work on citizenship in Pakistan.     

Peril and promise: a survey of India's strategic relationship with Central Asia

This article outlines the growing importance of India's relations with the Central Asian region. In particular, it explores security, economic, and cultural dimensions of the relationship. Important considerations for India in dealing with Central Asia include terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, energy security, and new export markets. Of equal gravity, however, is the nature of great power competition in the heart of Asia. The argument presented here is that India's relations with Central Asia are calculated to gain strategic depth in the region. However, relationships with Pakistan, the United States, and the Asian great powers tend to constrain these ambitions. The future direction of India's strategic relationships with Central Asia remains fluid.     

DON'T MENTION THE (AFGHAN) WAR: BRITAIN'S CURIOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH PAKISTAN

The article is based on Professor Lieven's recent book, Pakistan: a hard case. He starts by contrasting British and American attitudes, emphasising that Pakistan is far more important to Britain than Afghanistan as a result of the sheer size of the diaspora. And British officials and soldiers spent decades dealing with the North-West Frontier. They would not have been surprised by the shifting loyalties of the tribes, which are simply a fact of life. But the basic point of the book is to explain how the Pakistani system works. Pakistan is a troubled, but not a failing state. It is tougher than we think. But the very reasons for its toughness inhibit change. The military are over-powerful and the tax system is grossly inadequate. Cooperation over the terrorist threat to the West is good, but Afghanistan is another story. Pakistan is making its calculation on the basis of a western withdrawal, which would be welcomed by the average Pakistani. At some point the West will need to cut a deal with the Taliban and only Pakistan can get them to the table.     

Economics,imperialism and restorative revolution

Abstract

Disbelief, incomprehension and anger were common reactions to U.S. policy during the political crisis which ended in the break-up of Pakistan. President Nixon incurred wide and bi-partisan criticism in the American Congress and the press for supporting the Pakistani military government despite the latter's brutal suppression of the popular movement for autonomy in East Pakistan. No one seemed to discern any rationale—moral, political, or economic—for this policy. It is noteworthy that instead of dissipating the accusations of its favoritism to Islamabad, the White House helped reinforce the impression of its support for the junta, thus risking rising Congressional criticism and lampooning by liberal cartoonists, columnists, and editors.     

India's “Look East” Policy

A combination of economic, strategic, and domestic considerations has led India to pay greater attention to its eastern neighbours since the 1990s. India's steadily growing ties with East and Southeast Asian countries have become an increasingly important element of India's foreign policy. India is working with these countries bilaterally as well as through regional frameworks like the EAS, ASEM, and ASEAN, and sub-regional organizations like BIMSTEC and Mekong-Ganga Cooperation. The main driver remains economic, and India has many ongoing and planned FTAs with the countries of this region. Of late, defence and security ties too have grown. However, India's relations with China remain tense and troubled, with persisting differences over the border, Tibet, and China's patronage of India's South Asian neighbours, particularly Pakistan. Asia's major players will have to overcome internal rivalries and consciously evolve a cooperative paradigm for Asian security and cooperation to enable Asia to play a leading global role.     

SIACHEN GLACIER,THE FULCRUM OF THE GREAT GAME: COLONEL ‘BULL’ KUMAR’S PERSPECTIVES

This article, written by Prateek Joshi in close collaboration with Colonel Narender “Bull” Kumar, discusses the development of the conflict over the Siachen Glacier between India and Pakistan. It sets out the Siachen Conflict in the broad framework of the Great Game and explains the crucial role of Colonel Narender “Bull” Kumar's Siachen expeditions in rekindling this old flashpoint in High Asia. Based on Colonel Kumar's two expeditions to the Siachen Glacier region, namely the Teram Kangri expedition in 1978 and the Siachen expedition in 1981, it discusses the perspectives regarding the dispute and its relation to reviving a consciousness of the Great Game. The first perspective discusses Colonel Kumar's expeditions in light of the Indo-Pak conflict as these two visits became the precursor to Operation Meghdoot, following which the Indian Army occupied the Siachen Glacier in 1984. The second perspective discusses a crucial cartographic blank which was filled only after Colonel Kumar's Siachen expedition.     

South Africa's maritime power in the Indian Ocean Rim∗

The article assesses South Africa's maritime power in the Indian Ocean. It is argued that South Africa needs a credible navy to exercise power and influence in support of foreign policy imperatives in the Indian Ocean. The maritime potential of other states which may have an impact on South Africa's interests is examined, including Australia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and Kenya and, from outside the region, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The contrast between the growth and modernisation of other navies and the contraction and ageing of the South African Navy is highlighted. It is concluded that these developments leave South Africa strategically vulnerable.