“The root of the problem lies in a milieu where there is no hope, no jobs, no justice and no opportunities of social or political advancement for the educated youth in Pakistan” With help of social media, a political protagonist has polarised the national political discourse, injecting the poison of irrational hatred in minds, with …
Pakistan Needs Discipline, Not Cult-Driven Anarchy Read More »
The rise of populists around the globe has often dealt significant blows to democratic governance. Institutional strength and political messaging are key to defeating populists at the polls. We are living in a post-truth age, where lies are peddled as coherent narratives, or bayania, and proudly disseminated. For populists, popularity is more important than truth. Even …
General Pervez Musharraf’s life and legacy bear a close imprint of one of his retorts to an angry young officer who had accosted him with a question during one of the planned interactions with senior and junior officers in the GHQ auditorium. The officer visibly agitated over USA’s role in Afghanistan had read out a …
The scourge of terrorism has returned with a vengeance, a stark reminder of the tenuous security foundations over which the edifice of our national security is erected. According to Italian extremist ideologue Carlo Piscane, an act of terrorism is “propaganda by deed”. The worst deed in this violent propaganda has today taken more than 95 …
A recent opinion piece by Pervez Hoodbhoy argued why TTP could not be defeated. He ascribed this failure to lack of clarity in establishment about good and bad Taliban and the ideological confusion in the minds of soldiers and the citizens about TTP’s Islamic credentials. He also parsed open the layers of TTP’s logic for …
The most powerful institution in Pakistan has had a change of guard, with the baton of command handed over to the new Chief. The appointment of COAS in Pakistan always evokes a heated debate amongst the political pundits and the security Cassandras due to peculiar history of its civil-military relations. Though Pakistan has left behind …
The time has come for Pakistan to take some tough decisions and reorient its economic policies. Business as usual will yield the same errors. The shocking economic and human security projections will make the 100 million young people even angrier. Instead of becoming a demographic dividend, the youth are fast turning into a liability. Angry …
Anocracies are countries in transition towards full democracy after having experienced non-democratic rule in the past but are not fully committed to democratic practices. These countries have a high probability of experiencing intra-state conflicts and violence according to scholars like Gehem and Schellekens. In her piece in Human Rights Quarterly, Helen Fein points out that …
IPRI is one of the oldest non-partisan think-tanks on all facets of National Security including international relations & lawfare, strategic studies, governance & public policy and economic security in Pakistan. Established in 1999, IPRI is affiliated with the National Security Division (NSD), Government of Pakistan.
