The existing literature in the terrorism field does not address the absence of terrorism scholarship in developing countries. This article focuses on this intellectual gap using the case of Pakistan. It argues that most decolonised states, including Pakistan, are yet to grasp the complexities of traditional approaches to the study of terrorism, let alone its critical dimensions. The article explores some of the prevailing conditions in developing countries, specifically decolonised states such as Pakistan, which prevent the development of a robust academic discourse on terrorism and the development of a strong field of study. It suggests that the main barriers that account for this shortfall include the state's legitimacy deficit, a flawed education system that nurtures fictions as truth and inhibits knowledge production, the institutionalised role of conspiracy theories in national politics and the multiplicity of terrorism discourses among government and sociopolitical entities. The conclusion highlights a number of reasons that might help to explain this persistent condition and offers a few policy recommendations.
ARTICLE HISTORY
This article argues that not only has the counterterrorism (CT) commitment in Pakistan been ad hoc in recent years, but that the country's articulation of a softer type of CT response has been rhetorical at best. The research further highlights that Pakistan's attempts to craft a scientifically structured counter narrative are neither traditional nor within the country's current CT capability. The article's arguments are analyzed through a guiding framework based on the compiled works of various strategic communication experts, and helps illustrate the narrative landscapes of al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban as explored and pitched vis-à-vis the state's counter-narrative paradigm. The findings also probe the national mindset of Pakistanis amenability and appeal for terrorism. The result of this research posits an underlying question as to how then does Pakistan move forward in coping with increasing terrorist threats within its borders while simultaneously developing a coherent and fully functional counter terrorism effort in the future.
Pakistan has achieved significant success in countering terrorism without however, defeating it. The violence thus persists. Not only the countervailing policies have lacked a coherent vision underpinned by a balanced blend of soft and hard approaches, the ongoing mainly the military led effort has also been subverted by important actors in Pakistani state, politics and society. Apart from idiosyncratic national security landscape characterized by a complex set of geopolitical dynamics and foreign interventions, the conundrum resides in a multitude of conflicting viewpoints, policy attitudes and reactions against terrorism. Ironically, the extant terrorism and conflict literature has not systematically sought to understand the causes germinating this peculiar security setting of an important South Asian country which not only deprives critical input to research about non-western responses to terrorism but also hinders in developing objective understanding about sociopolitical conditions and constraints impacting such responses, at times leading to uninformed perceptions. This chapter helps to fill this void.
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