SAND 2014-1749P

Unlimited Release

April 2014

Pakistan’s Strategic Culture: Formulation 

of Counterterrorism Policy

Dr. Muhammad Tehsin

Assistant Professor

Quaid-I-Azam University 

Islamabad, Pakistan

Cooperative Monitoring Center Occasional Paper

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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture: Formulation 

of Counterterrorism Policy

Abstract

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 consequences for regional and global stability as well as nuclear security. Pakistan should 

formulate counterterrorism policy, transform strategic culture, and seek connectivity with the rest 

of the world to overcome the threat of Islamism.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and 

do not necessarily reflect on the position of their respective institutions 

or Sandia National Laboratories.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Contents

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................................5

ACRONYMS................................................................................................................................................................9

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................................................10

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT...........................................................................................................................13

2. PAKISTAN’S STRATEGIC CULTURE....................................................................................................16

2.1. WHAT IS STRATEGIC CULTURE .............................................................................................................16

2.2. SHIFTS IN PAKISTAN’S STRATEGIC CULTURE.........................................................................................18

2.3. IMPACT OF STRATEGIC CULTURE ON COUNTERTERRORISM POLICY......................................................19

3. ANALYSIS OF THREE POSSIBLE SCENARIOS...................................................................................21

3.1. TAKEOVER BY ISLAMISTS: LEAST LIKELY/LEAST DESIRABLE SCENARIO..............................................22

3.2. AMBIGUITY TOWARD ISLAMISTS: MORE LIKELY/LESS DESIRABLE SCENARIO ......................................24

3.3. DEFEAT OF ISLAMISTS: LESS LIKELY/MOST DESIRABLE SCENARIO ......................................................26

4. COUNTERTERRORISM POLICY TO ACHIEVE THE MOST DESIRABLE SCENARIO..............28

4.1. MILITARY OPERATIONS WITH A LIGHT FOOTPRINT ................................................................................28

4.2. ROLE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ...................................................................................................28

4.3. PREVENTING SECTARIANIZATION OF IDENTITY .....................................................................................29

5. FORMULATION OF COUNTERTERRORISM POLICY: PERSPECTIVES FOR STRATEGIC 

CULTURE.....................................................................................................................................................30

5.1. FOCUS ON INTERNAL SECURITY ............................................................................................................30

5.2. CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS .................................................................................................................31

5.3. INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIVITY ...........................................................................................................31

6. CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................................33

APPENDIX A: A MIGRANT STATE....................................................................................................................36

ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...........................................................................................................................................38
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Figures

Figure 1: Map of Pakistan’s Sectarian Violence (Reuters) ..........................................................................................15

Figure 2: Strategic Culture...........................................................................................................................................17

Figure 3: Three mindsets and the overlaps ..................................................................................................................25

Figure 4: Trends of Sectarian Violence (www.san-pips.com) .....................................................................................29

Figure 5: Pakistan - The Human Development Index..................................................................................................32

Tables

Table 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in 2012 ............................................................................................................20
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Acronyms

ANP Awami National Party

APC All Parties Conference

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

FATA Federally Administered Tribal Areas

FC Frontier Corps

HDI Human Development Index

ISI Inter-Services Intelligence directorate

JSD Joint Strategic Directive

KPK Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province

NACTA National Counter Terrorism Authority

NADRA National Database and Registration Authority

NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NWS Nuclear-Weapons State

PML (N) Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz

PPP Pakistan People’s Party

PTI Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf

RAW Research and Analysis Wing

TTP Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan

UN United Nations

U.S. United States
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture: Formulation 

of Counterterrorism Policy

Executive Summary

Pakistan is at a tipping point. While there is gradual strengthening of electoral democracy, there 

is also the growing power of Islamist extremism. The internal security problem caused by 

Islamist violence poses a strategic threat. In the regional domain, foreign policy is stagnant vis-àvis the strategic environment. Pakistan’s India-centered threat perception and involvement in 

Afghanistan has not paid off. India’s economic trajectory, Iran’s rapprochement with the U.S., 

and Afghanistan’s post-withdrawal situation, are the regional trends that should coax Pakistan to 

reevaluate its strategic culture paradigm.

The domestic trend, however, is moving toward right-wing ascendency. For this right-wing 

consensus in society to stand in opposition to ultra-right Islamism, the role of the military and 

strategic culture increases in significance. Strategic culture is concerned with identification of 

threat, and the institutionalization of national strategy to deal with that threat. In the case of 

Pakistan, the main sources of regional threat perception were India and Afghanistan. In order to 

deal with these threats, Pakistan opted for strategies of nuclear deterrence and sub-conventional 

warfare. The continuation of the latter policy has become untenable due to the evolving strategic 

environment and the backlash of Islamist violence, causing an internal security problem. 

There are three possible scenarios for the future of Pakistan, which correspond to the three 

mindsets prevalent in the Pakistani society. These three mindsets can be identified as: Islamist, 

nationalist and internationalist. Each of these mindsets could become the causal factors for 

realization of each scenario. The first scenario is a takeover of Pakistani state/government by 

Islamists. It corresponds to the radical Islamist mindset in the society. The second scenario is 

continued governmental ambiguity toward Islamists. It corresponds to the nationalists giving 

ground gradually to Islamists for supposed realpolitik reasons. The third scenario is the defeat of 

Islamists. It corresponds to the internationalist/realist mindset in the society. 

Islamism can be defeated numerically and intellectually by an alliance of the two remaining 

mindsets i.e. realist and nationalist. But for this to happen, the nationalists and realists would 

have to reach a modus vivendi. The basis of their alliance could be the affiliation with the 1973 

constitution and the will to modernize. But the dilemma of the nationalist thought process in 

Pakistan is that it harbors components of both realism and Islamism within its intellectual 

landscape. With the socially ascendant Islamist mindset, the nationalist mindset shares images of 

India as regional and the U.S. as global hegemon and tyrant. The only way the realists can win is 

through an alliance with the nationalists, which the nationalists would have to affect in their own 

enlightened self-interest after distancing themselves from the Islamist mindset.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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To achieve the desired scenario of defeat of Islamism, Pakistan’s counterterrorism policy should 

focus not just on the military aspect, but also on the political and socio-economic aspects of the 

conflict. Secondly, there should be realization of the importance of international connectivity. 

Thirdly, Pakistan and its various religious communities should resist confessional identityformation. The Shia Muslims make up about 20 percent of Pakistan’s population of 180 million. 

The Shia-Sunni schism has gradually turned violent since the anti-Shia era of General Zia ul-Haq 

(1977-88). 

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 800 Shias have been killed in attacks in Pakistan 

since the beginning of 2012. The Shia and other minorities e.g. Christians, Hindus, and Ahmedi 

Muslims, should be given protection because they are currently in danger of being subjected to 

genocide at the hands of Islamist groups, which would also be devastating to Pakistan’s image 

and identity. 

Since terrorism poses a strategic threat, it naturally follows that it should elicit a strategic 

response. This response entails changes in strategic culture in tandem with formulation of 

counterterrorism policy. The first change is the focus on internal security. The external threat 

should not be exaggerated whereby it hinders the pursuit of critical internal focus needed for 

internal stability. For this purpose, Pakistan would have to complete the post-September 11th 

shift in strategic culture of abandoning sub-conventional warfare vis-à-vis India and support for 

Taliban in Afghanistan, which cause an internal fallout and backlash. Secondly, civil-military 

relations should be streamlined to ensure rule of law and nuclear security. And thirdly, there 

should be enhanced sensitivity to role of technology. 

The tools of modern technology are instrumental in managing and educating the sixth largest 

population in the world, and presenting the counter narrative to lethal Islamist discourse that is 

harmful to the image of Pakistan and Islam. The U.S. and international community could help 

Pakistan improve its technological capability through education in science and technology. 
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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Pakistan’s Strategic Culture: Formulation 

of Counterterrorism Policy

1. Problem Statement

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is planned for 2014. Resultantly, Pakistan could have 

insecure borders on both east and west, further compounded by internal security problem. Due to 

rampant crime in rural areas, and terrorism in urban areas, there is near anarchy in Pakistan. The 

trends of violent activity suggest that the internal security problem of Pakistan is not a routine 

activity issue rather it poses a strategic threat. This is because terrorism poses an existential threat 

to Pakistan. So far, the problem has been dealt with by ritualistic and rhetorical responses by the 

political elite since it is still viewed in conventional terms. However, critical thinking is required 

to adequately deal with the problem in the future. The existential threat posed by the internal 

security problem has to be recognized by the strategic culture, because culture cannot remain 

oblivious to such a threat.

The problem of Islamism is global in scope. It is a hard problem to solve because of its global 

reach and ideological complexity. It is caused by both indirect and direct factors. The indirect 

factors are lack of good governance, and lack of religious reformation in the Muslim World. And 

the direct factor is the specific geopolitical and geostrategic situation of the state concerned. The 

nation-state is on the front line of this conflict, because Islamism is supranational in its 

objectives. It rejects the premise of the nation-state. This article looks at the Islamist problem 

from the Pakistani angle. Due to Islamism’s expansion, governmental authority is unraveling in 

Pakistan. Pakistan’s survival in its tug-of-war with Islamism is critical to peace in general and 

nuclear security in particular, in the region and beyond. The problem has been caused by 

Pakistan’s vulnerability to foreign influences e.g. sectarian strife in the wider Middle Eastern 

region. And it is also due to the backlash of the foreign policy tools employed by Pakistan in the 

past i.e. sub-conventional warfare. Pakistan has to launch a two-pronged effort. First is the 

ideological counter narrative to challenge the Islamist mindset. And secondly, Pakistan has to 

formulate a concrete counterterrorism policy that includes post-conflict rehabilitation and 

modernization.

Pakistan’s stance of running with the hare and hunting with the hound is partly because the 

Islamists are now so powerful that the state does not want to stir the hornet’s nest for fear of 

upsetting the apple cart. In this sense, the state’s appeasement of Islamists demonstrates to them 

that the state believes it is living on borrowed time. In order to comprehend the situation, this 

article looks at three possible future scenarios. These depictions of the future would hopefully 

point to the need for the right direction to achieve the desired scenario. The scenarios considered 

here include, Pakistan’s steady movement on the road to modernization and moderation; 

Pakistan’s gradually going under the encroaching influence of Islamism; or Pakistan’s suddenly 

falling into the full-scale control of Islamism. These scenarios correspond to the three prevailing 

mindsets in Pakistani society, which are: the internationalists who want Pakistan to join the 

international community, nationalists who wish for the state to survive in its current form, and 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Islamists who seek supremacy of their interpretation of Islam, which would lead to global 

isolation and hostility with grave consequences for Pakistan.

The research questions for the study are:

1. What is the nature of internal security threat to Pakistan?

2. Can Pakistan’s strategic culture remain intact despite pervasive Islamism at societal 

level?

The main hypothesis of the study is: “Terrorism poses a strategic threat to Pakistan. Pakistan’s 

strategic culture must adapt to the objective strategic environment, and adopt a concrete 

counterterrorism policy to maintain the strategic culture’s pragmatic realist paradigm”. 

Counterterrorism policy and strategic culture must work in conjunction, for the fulfillment of 

national objectives. The concept of strategic culture relates to national defense and is externally 

oriented, whereas internal security is deemed to be outside its purview. But this bifurcation is not 

clear-cut anymore. The internal and external notions of security are not watertight compartments. 

There is increasing juxtaposition of the two conceptions of security due to the ramification of one 

on the other. In the case of Pakistan, given the hostile relations with its eastern neighbor, tensions 

within and a disturbed western border, and all situations sharing a radical Islamist overtone, it is 

important to know how Pakistan’s strategic culture affects the counterterrorism policy, and vice 

versa. 

In order to get out of this policy limbo, Pakistan would have to provide a single direction to the 

nation and thereby evolve a common identity and common national purpose. The slogan of 

‘national honor in danger’, anti-American hysteria, and sectarian identity-formation, would have 

to be eschewed in favor of moderation and enlightened self-interest. The first step in this 

connection would be to abandon passion-driven foreign policy and transform the strategic 

culture. Pakistan’s problem of Islamist terrorism was caused due to the backlash of the myopic 

policy of being stuck with the Taliban to hedge its bets for an Afghan endgame. The support to 

Taliban in Afghanistan for the post-withdrawal positioning should be curbed in order to deal with 

the Islamist threat within Pakistan. Pakistan should rest assured that if there is a stable 

government in Kabul, whether hostile or friendly, it would ultimately be forced by geographical 

contiguity and demographical affinity to extend the hand of friendship. The policy of subconventional warfare toward India too has not served Pakistan well. In fact, both Pakistan and 

India should now engage in serious dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue, water security issue 

and engage in other confidence building measures. 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Figure 1: Map of Pakistan’s Sectarian Violence (Reuters)
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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2. Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

There is an interesting anecdote about how difficult it was for Norman Borlaug, the Nobel 

laureate, to introduce new cultural practices in Pakistan, India, and other countries, to bring about 

the agricultural revolution that would save those countries from severe food shortages.1Initially, 

government officials refused to budge from mainstream practices. But ultimately they were 

forced to concede to reality, and agreed to usher in the direly needed cultural changes for their 

own survival and self-preservation. These changes ultimately lead to the Green Revolution of 

the 1960s and 1970s. 

Similarly, Pakistan’s strategic culture must also change from within in order to affect the changes 

necessary to formulate counterterrorism policy. It must begin with an analysis of the national 

interest and the most desired scenario that the counterterrorism policy must support. This 

requires a paradigm shift. Bringing about structural change is always hard, but can be done for 

the sake of survival and enlightened self-interest. Therefore, it is important to understand 

strategic culture, the shifts therein, and the impact of strategic culture on counterterrorism policy.

2.1. What is Strategic Culture

Strategic culture pertains to national defense. It is the institutionalization of national strategy. In 

other words, strategic culture points to the organizational culture of the national security 

establishment. According to Jack Snyder, “The sum total of ideas, conditional emotional 

responses, and patterns of behavior that members of the national strategic community have 

acquired through instruction or imitation and share with each other with regard to nuclear 

strategy”.2Thus strategic culture is able to dynamically impact upon the way a policy is 

formulated and also affects the way it is implemented. The purpose of strategic culture of a state 

would be to influence threat perception i.e. identification of threat, and provide a framework to 

deal with that threat i.e. military (nuclear) doctrine or posture. And for a Nuclear Weapon State 

(NWS) these would also include the safety and security of nuclear weapons, and 

nonproliferation. 

Strategic culture has two main sources. First is political culture that is comprised of ideas, 

beliefs, emotions, attitudes and behaviors of the political elite. Pakistan’s strategic culture 

evolved in view of the Islamic outlook of political leadership, affinity with Islamic causes like 

Palestine and Kashmir, and role of military in political decision-making. Second is the strategic 

environment that has to be objectively evaluated for realistic assessment. 

 

1 Leon F. Hesser, The Man Who Fed the World, (Durban House Press, Incorporated, 2009), 81-100.

2

Jack Snyder, The Soviet Strategic Culture: Implications for Nuclear Options, R-2154-AF, (Santa Monica: Calif. 

RAND Corporation, 1977), 8.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Figure 2: Strategic Culture

Pakistan’s regional threat perception, in terms of Barry Buzan’s regional security complex, 

revolves around India and Afghanistan. In order to deal with these perceived threats, Pakistan has 

opted for nuclear deterrence and sub-conventional warfare. However, the realist paradigm of the 

strategic culture could be undermined due to the policy of sub-conventional warfare to gain 

military advantage over India in the Kashmir issue, and involvement in Afghanistan. 

Some broad features of Pakistani strategic culture can be identified in terms of the states that 

matter most. The most important states are India, U.S., Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and 

China. India is seen as being engaged in hegemonic-objective conflict with Pakistan in the 

region. With the U.S., there is an ambivalent relationship that is worsening due to hysterical 

rhetoric in Pakistani domestic politics and increasing gaps between the respective intelligence 

agencies. In Afghanistan, the Pakistani policy of propping up the Taliban against the Karzai 

government, and countering warming Indo-Afghan relations, is perceived as vital. And to Iran, 

Pakistan’s sectarian Sunni identity is being crystallized in view of growing domestic 

sectarianization. Saudi Arabia wields considerable influence, which has been utilized in Pakistan 

for pumping money into the madrassahs, and spreading Takfiri Islamism. China remains the 

object of Pakistan’s exaggerated and unreciprocated hopes for greater cooperation. Lastly, an 

unavoidable feature of Pakistani strategic culture is that the traditional socio-political influence 

of the national military has metamorphisized into pervasive influence of non-state militancy due 

to the officially sanctioned proliferation of Islamist militant groups. State paralysis is palpable, as 

some of these groups turned from assets to liabilities when they began targeting organs and 

institutions of the state. 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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2.2. Shifts in Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

Strategic culture can change in cases of extraordinary pressure or crisis. This change can be 

debilitating for the state, because of a break in continuity, or it can be rejuvenating, as a survival 

mechanism to cope with the new strategic environment. Pakistan has previously experienced two 

major shifts in its strategic culture.3The first was the 1972 decision to acquire a nuclear 

deterrent. The second change was the post-September 11th decision to end support for subconventional warfare in India and Afghanistan. 

Pakistan’s strategic culture has been oriented toward India for the past sixty-six years. During the 

first twenty-five years of its existence, Pakistan relied upon conventional defense. The Pakistan 

army under Ayub Khan assiduously refused the nuclear option up till 1969, “Khan rejected 

Bhutto’s demand for nuclear weapons to counter India, choosing instead to increase Pakistan’s 

conventional defenses and strengthen its security ties to the U.S.”4The decision to nuclearize 

was a strategic shift brought about by Z.A. Bhutto’s government in 1972, and later taken over by 

General Zia’s martial law regime from July 1977 onwards. The overall impact of that shift is still 

under debate. 

Pakistan’s defeat against India in 1971 is considered a watershed moment because it was a 

military and political defeat. With its ill-advised policies in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), 

Pakistan managed to create a situation where Indian intervention was made possible. Thanks to 

Bhutto’s nuclear initiative, now Pakistan is once again in a position where it can pursue policies 

beyond its military prowess. The enduring lesson of 1971 is not that the Pakistan military was not 

able to repulse the Indian military on the battlefield. The enduring lesson of 1971 is that, “the 

majority of East Pakistani population had already been alienated from West Pakistan”.5The same 

kind of internal disarray in Pakistan could cause the next regional crisis. 

The future nuclear crisis in South Asia could unfold with Islamists launching a terrorist attack on 

Indian soil, India responding with conventional attack, Pakistani low threshold for nuclear use 

resulting in the outbreak of general war turning into nuclear war. With the benefit of hindsight 

given the 1971 example, the most relevant escalation control would be for Pakistan to exercise 

control over its territory, and prevent the use of its territory or resources for precipitous terrorist 

attacks against India. In a similar vein, India should also work to dispel the Pakistani perception 

of India being an existential as opposed to an ideological threat.

The second shift in Pakistan’s strategic culture was the declared abandonment of subconventional warfare after the September 11th attacks. Pakistan renounced support to Afghan 

Taliban, but this shift remains incomplete. According to the U.S. view, the Pakistanis never 

seriously desired to expel the Taliban from Afghanistan. The post-September 11th ‘policy Uturn’ was misplaced terminology because Pakistan’s support of Afghan Taliban persisted.6

The 

 

3

Peter R. Lavoy, “Pakistan’s Strategic Culture,” (Defence Threat Reduction Agency, 2006). 

www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/dtra/pakistan.pdf

4 Lavoy, “Nuclear Proliferation Over the Next Decade,” Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 13, No. 3, (November 2006).

5

Shuja Nawaz, Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its army, and the wars within, (Oxford University Press, 2008), 282.

6 K. Alan Kronstadt, “Pakistan-U.S. Relations: A Summary,” R41832, (Congressional Research Service, October 

2011), www.crs.gov.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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change under Pakistan’s ‘policy U-turn’ was tactical logistic support e.g. acceptance of NATO 

passage routes through Pakistan to get supplies to Afghanistan. In statements before the Senate 

Arms Services Committee Admiral Mike Mullen claimed that the Haqqani network (i.e. Afghan 

Taliban) acted as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).7This 

statement further confirmed the view that Pakistan’s post-September 11th strategic orientation 

remained largely unchanged.

The raison d’etre for Pakistani strategic culture’s interest in Afghanistan was the policy of 

strategic depth. It originated in the 1980s as a means to offset the conventional military 

superiority of India and geographic vulnerability of Pakistan due to its linear shape. This policy 

views Afghanistan to be within Pakistan’s sphere of influence. The strategic depth policy 

envisioned Pakistani influence in Afghanistan to provide geographical space to Pakistani military 

to regroup in case of war with India. The distance between Khyber Pass, on Pakistan-Afghanistan 

border, and Wagah-Lahore border with India, is around 350 miles. But two factors make this

policy redundant. First, from a military strategy point of view, Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent 

should rule out the need for the strategic depth policy. Secondly, the policy necessitates 

Pakistan’s interest in a pliant regime in Kabul, which infuriates the Afghans who pride 

themselves on their independence.

2.3. Impact of Strategic Culture on Counterterrorism Policy

As Table 1 shows, the rising toll of terrorist incidents in Pakistan demonstrates how the policy of 

sub-conventional warfare has backfired. Pakistan’s policy of using irregular forces can be traced 

to the 1948, 1965, and 1971 wars with India. This policy-orientation reached the current scale 

during the Afghan War beginning in 1979 and continues up till now. That is why subconventional warfare can be assumed to have become an element of the strategic culture. 

 

7 Elisabeth Bumiller and Jane Perlez, “Pakistan’s Spy Agency is Tied to Attack on U.S. embassy,” New York Times, 

September 22, 2011.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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Table 1: Terrorist Attacks in Pakistan in 20128

However, Pakistani strategic culture’s realist paradigm is incompatible with the policy of subconventional warfare. For example, Kashmir is important to the strategic culture. But the policy 

of sub-conventional warfare has tainted the international legitimacy of the Kashmiri struggle for 

freedom. Secondly, internal sovereignty is linked with external sovereignty. When Pakistan uses 

sub-conventional means to control insurgency within its borders or foment insurgency in 

Afghanistan, it is faced with a backlash that could result in a loss internal control.9

The main elements of Pakistan’s strategic culture are India, Afghanistan, nuclear deterrence, and 

sub-conventional warfare. India is the primary threat in Pakistani strategic culture. Afghanistan 

on the other hand, which has never been on good terms with Pakistan, is considered friendly, a 

source of strategic depth, and worthy of sacrifices.10 Pakistan is stuck with its enmity for India 

and friendliness for Afghanistan.11

But strategic culture should be interest-based not ideology- or emotion-based. It should be 

entrenched in realism and cost-benefit calculus i.e. assessment of trade-offs. There should be 

objective assessment of the strategic environment. Sub-conventional warfare has greater cost in 

terms of internal security than the expected benefit in terms of military advantage. Thus Pakistan 

 

8

Pakistan Security Report 2012, PIPS (http://www.san-pips.com)

9 Haider Ali Hussein Mullick, “Pakistan’s Security Paradox: Countering and Fomenting Insurgencies,” JSOU Report 

09-9, (Florida: Hulbert Field, The JSOU Press, 2009).

10 Afghanistan was the only country not to vote for Pakistan’s inclusion in the UN in 1947.

11 For a discussion on the friend/enemy distinction in politics, see Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political,

(Chicago, IL: The University of the Chicago Press, 2007), 25. According to Schmitt, everything concerning the state 

is political and everything political carries with it the friend/enemy distinction. Schmitt makes another point that is 

relevant to Pakistan’s current situation. He says that when the state becomes involved in non-political spheres i.e. 

religion, economics, science, and culture, it brings its ‘political’ attribute to bear on these non-political spheres, 

thereby imposing on to them the friend/enemy categorization and leading to violence.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

21

should focus on restoring internal sovereignty through counterterrorism policy. This is crucial in 

the light of the evolving strategic environment. The goal of both strategic culture and 

counterterrorism policy should be a stable and prosperous state that is able to discredit Islamism 

ideologically and defeat it militarily. The problem of internal security poses a strategic threat 

because it is both ideological and existential in nature. 12

3. Analysis of Three Possible Scenarios

The scenarios presented in this work might appear to be pessimistic, but this academic exercise is 

meant to provide options to prevent the worst-case scenarios. The use of alternative futures as a 

means of study helps provide varying lenses of observation. It enables us to make ‘informed 

decisions’ about an evolving situation.13 There are three possible scenarios for the future of 

Pakistan, which correspond to the three mindsets prevalent in the Pakistani society. These three 

mindsets can be identified as: Islamist, nationalist and internationalist. Each of these mindsets 

could become the causal factors for realization of each scenario. The first scenario is a takeover 

of Pakistani state/government by Islamists. It corresponds to the radical Islamist mindset in the 

society. The second scenario is continued governmental ambiguity toward Islamists. It 

corresponds to the nationalists giving ground gradually to Islamists for supposed realpolitik 

reasons. The third scenario is the defeat of Islamists. It corresponds to the internationalist/realist 

mindset in the society. 

An interesting way to analyze the three mindsets is in evaluating their approach toward the U.S. 

Even though the U.S. has been the most important financial, political, military and diplomatic 

supporter of Pakistan since its formation, anti-Americanism is on the rise at societal level. The 

Islamist view is that U.S.-Pakistan relations are short-term, transient, and can be drastically 

curtailed anytime. As a result, they advocate the precipitous degradation of bilateral relations. 

The nationalist view is that no sudden changes should be made, in order to avoid drastic U.S. 

reaction. Thus, in nationalist view, Pakistan’s grand strategy should be “gradual distancing from 

U.S.” The internationalist view looks at the flip side that if the war against terrorism in Pakistan 

were not tackled then Pakistan’s world image and reputation would be wrecked. The damage to 

Pakistan would be at the political, economic, diplomatic, and military levels. Therefore, Pakistan 

should be unilaterally aligned with the U.S.

These mindsets support the three ‘terminal’ narratives at loggerheads with each other, which 

threaten to consume the country with their ‘end-of-times’ outlook.14 The Islamist mindset, 

Islamism, is traceable to Islam’s arrival in India around 800 years ago. Its most recent incarnation 

is the Madrassah Darul Uloom Deoband, founded in 1866, in Uttar Pradesh in India. This 

 

12 Muhammad Feyyaz, “Conceptualising Terrorism Trend Patterns in Pakistan, an Empirical Perspective,” 

Perspectives on Terrorism, (North America, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2013). Available at http://www.terrorism 

analysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/243. Date accessed, 09 Jan, 2014.

13 Herman Kahn and Anthony J. Wiener, The Year 2000 A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three 

Years, (New York: The Macmillan Company, N.Y. Collier-Macmillan Limited, London, 1967), 262-264. The piece 

‘Use of scenarios’ by Herman Kahn can also be accessed at the website of Hudson Institute, of which he was the cofounder. 

http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=2214

14 Khaled Ahmed, “Three 'terminal' narratives of Pakistan,” The Friday Times, Vol. XX, No. 22, July 18-24, 2008.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

22

mindset rejects modernity. It ignores facts and relies instead on hearsay and conspiracy theories. 

It posits that 9/11 was an inside job and al Qaeda is a CIA creation. It goes on to assert that 

Muslim states were American puppets, notwithstanding the fact that according to the same 

narrative the Muslim states collectively formed the ‘ummah’ (Islamic nation). This mindset 

asserts that instead of fighting militants within, it is more appropriate for Pakistan to fight the 

U.S.

The second mindset, nationalism, can be traced to Muslim reform movement that began 200 

years ago as a consequence of the British rule in India. The central tenet of this mindset, and the 

impetus for Pakistan’s foundation in 1947, was the Aligarh educational movement. Its most 

prominent expression was the Aligarh Muslim University formed by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in 

1875-78, in Uttar Pradesh in India. This mindset permeates the state institutions i.e. civil-military 

bureaucracy. It is India-centric in its approach. However, with the Islamists identifying America 

as the main enemy, and the internationalists focusing on Al Qaeda, the nationalist mindset is 

caught in between those two positions and has assumed a ‘split personality’. And whenever it 

reverts to its India-centric approach, the Islamist approach is strengthened. 

The internationalist mindset is based upon Pakistan’s geopolitical realities and can be traced to 

the 2000-year old Silk Route, which passed through Pakistan. It is based upon facts and figures, 

and is well informed about the inner workings of the threat posed by Islamism e.g. Al Qaeda et 

al. Besides the U.S. and EU this narrative also takes into account the concerns of the regional 

states including India, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Uzbekistan. This mindset focuses on 

connectivity, economic interdependence and political coexistence. 

Of the three scenarios being considered, the most preferred outcome is one where the state is able 

to overcome its internal security concerns.15 The state today is still the agency that retains the 

capacity to affect the greatest amount of good. Therefore, I argue in this study that the nationalist 

mindset that exalts the state must concretize its worldview in areas like ideology, economy, 

diplomacy, society, politics, and military. This would help the nationalists stand on their own 

feet, in the intellectual sense, and provide them the freedom and wherewithal to form an alliance 

with the internationalist mindset, instead of being forced or inclined to lean toward Islamism. 

The confident nationalists would be able to increase the level of connectivity with the outside 

world to bring about socio-economic development particularly in the field of education. 

3.1. Takeover by Islamists: Least Likely/Least Desirable Scenario

The Islamists reject the nation-state and seek to establish a transnational Islamist Caliphate. Yet 

for expediency purposes, they view Pakistan as most powerful Muslim military power – a 

position from which the country, under their control, could pursue radical pan-Islamic objectives 

and seek its future as an important part of a bigger political and military entity. The outcome of 

 

15 A similar notion to the three scenarios outlined in this work, albeit from the direction of US policy-making, was 

made by Daniel S. Markey in No Exit from Pakistan, (Cambridge University Press, 2013), 200-238. In his book, 

Markey laid down three options for the US policy toward Pakistan in the future: defensive insulation, military-first 

cooperation, and comprehensive cooperation. 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

23

this scenario can be characterized by the Samuel Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis.16

Another relevant concept would be Buzan’s regional concept of ‘conflict formation’.17

The Islamists are an ideological, myth-based, and millenarian movement with transnational 

objectives. They are not introspective. They blame the rest of the world, particularly Europe, the 

U.S. and pro-West Muslim states, for domestic political dispossession or lack of regional 

preponderance. They seek to harm these states out of vengeance. The Islamists’ objectives are 

rejection of modernity, use of violence, elimination of minorities in Muslim countries and nonMuslims worldwide, and bringing down apostate Muslim governments (those states that do not 

impose Sharia laws). Thus, they seek to displace national elites. 

According to Islamists, Pakistan’s policies gravitate toward an international framework under 

U.S. pressure. For example, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Pakistan’s 

policy of ‘compromises’ toward Islamists is disrupted by U.S. military attacks, which are in-turn 

resented by the Islamists. 

An Islamist take over in Pakistan would result in the Pakistani Islamists allying with other 

Islamist groups (e.g. with Islamists in Iraq and Syria). And religious extremism and calls for 

caliphate in Middle East and Central Asia (former Soviet republics) would be compounded. 

In the region, an Islamist state would likely direct its belligerence towards India. Beyond South 

Asia, they would target Israel, Iran and the U.S. The Islamists would look upon nuclear weapons 

as providing the country with a security cover for initiating state-sponsored operations to pursue 

the military option in Indian-controlled Kashmir. They would be prepared to risk a costly fullscale war with India over Kashmir. Afghanistan would experience Taliban resurgence, which 

could result in its break up. In the Middle East region, Islamists would seek to threaten Israel, and 

also turn against Iran. By focusing on Iran, they would label the status of Pakistan’s nuclear 

weapons as the “Sunni Bomb”. Pakistan would be thrust into the Arab-Iranian rivalry and made 

to act as more than a proxy. 

The Iran-Pakistan sectarian disharmony reached a high point in the 1996 Taliban takeover of 

Afghanistan, supported by Pakistan. To Islamists in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE (three 

countries that recognized the Taliban regime), it was worth celebrating as the first successful 

Sunni revolution in the Muslim World after the 1979 Iranian Shia revolution. To Iranians it was a 

security concern, and when Taliban forces advanced into the northern Afghan city of Mazar-iSharif in 1998 and murdered Iranian diplomats, the Iranian military mobilized 70,000 troops on 

the Afghan border. The crisis was defused though efforts by UN and U.S. Pakistan can ill-afford 

sectarian disharmony either domestically or regionally. 

In case of Islamist takeover, nuclear de-stabilization at the regional and global level would 

become more likely. Islamists’ nuclear doctrine would be aggressive with lowered threshold of 

 

16 Samuel P. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilization?” Foreign Affairs, (Summer 1993). 

17 Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security, (Cambridge 

University Press, 2003), 174-77.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

24

nuclear use. The safety and security of nuclear weapons would be compromised. There would be 

greater risk of proliferation globally. 

3.2. Ambiguity toward Islamists: More Likely/Less Desirable Scenario

This situation is closer to current reality. The outcome for Pakistan under a formal alliance-withIslamists’ scenario can best be characterized by Singer and Wildavsky’s “Zone of Turmoil”.18

According to them, the zone of turmoil possesses the following features:

1. Absence of democracy

2. Internal instability

3. Endemic violence 

This scenario could lead to a situation akin to post-Arab Spring Syria, Egypt under Mohammad 

Morsi, and Afghanistan under Taliban. Another similar case was Pakistan’s Swat Valley under 

the Taliban.

As shown in Figure 3, the nationalist mindset overlaps with the Islamists and internationalists 

mindsets. The nationalist mindset relates to civil-military bureaucracy. The future stance of the 

nationalists and which of the two mindsets they eventually lean toward would be critical for 

determining the future course of Pakistan. The nationalist view accepts the fact that Pakistan 

needs a combination of judicious politico-military strategy that coordinates political, economic, 

diplomatic, military dimensions. It acknowledges that the usual practice of political gimmickry 

has been harmful for Pakistan. But this view goes on to draw on the mistaken geographical 

distinctions within Islamism, ignoring Islamist’s ideological connection, and holds that the 

insurgency in Pakistan has both an Afghan and local dimension

The nationalist view admits that some of these groups have been manipulated by Pakistani 

intelligence agencies in the past in order to improve Pakistan’s regional positioning. However, it 

recognizes that there has to be a fair, ruthless analysis of causes of Pakistan’s internal stability 

problems from which policy solutions should be based. It further holds that although 

international involvement is present in the counterterrorism situation, the situation is still in 

Pakistan’s hands. And that Pakistan government should seriously evolve its own framework, 

within current domestic/international restraints. Moreover, the steep decline in relations with the 

U.S. should be arrested.

 

18 Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, The Real World Order: Zones of Peace, Zones of Turmoil, (Chatham House, 

1993). The authors describe the two types of zones in the world.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

25

Figure 3: Three mindsets and the overlaps

The realpolitik reasoning behind Pakistan’s support for Afghan Taliban was derived from the 

‘strategic depth’ policy. Pakistan favored a Sunni Islamist regime in Kabul as opposed to other 

groups that might have been closer to Iran or India. Secondly, it preferred the Taliban whose 

Islamic identity subsumed their ethnic (Pashtoon) identity, and thereby reduced the irredentist 

threat to Pakistan. But this policy has ramifications for Pakistan. This policy’s internal impact on 

Pakistan has provided greater space for militants, and put its minorities in danger. 

The takeover by, or ambiguity toward, Islamists, is the worst-case scenario. Either Pakistan faces 

takeover by radical Islamism and its nuclear weapons fall into their hands; or Pakistan allies with 

radical Islamism and hands over its nuclear arsenal. While the initial case would be accepted as 

fait accompli given that all preventive measures had been exhausted, but the latter scenario is full 

of teachable moments for the ruling elite of the country. If a part of the elite hope to survive the 

radical takeover through co-optation with radicals, that must go against revolutionary patterns 

witnessed in France in 1789 and Iran in 1979. The crux of the revolutionary group’s political 

objectives is to supplant the ruling elites. Pakistani ruling elite witnessed this phenomenon of the

former elites’ elimination in next-door Afghanistan in 1996, particularly in the capital Kabul. 

In the event of an alliance with Islamists, enmity with India would be intensified. After all, the 

alliance between Islamists and nationalists has its roots in the obsession with India and the 

utilizing non-state actors to pressure India. 

The nationalists deny the consequences of the passion-driven foreign policy. It tries to deny the 

existence of internal security problems too, but when forced by events, it tends to put the blame 

on ‘the other’, and the ‘usual suspects’. According to nationalists’ conspiracy theory: TTP is an 

agent of CIA/RAW (Indian intelligence agency) - the usual suspects. But the following questions 

are ignored: Why does the Pakistan military let the TTP survive? And why do political parties 

insist on talks with the TTP? According to nationalist/religious narrative, Pakistan should ask the 

U.S. to give it some time to handle the FATA situation. For the U.S., the timing is critical now to 

put pressure on Taliban for a successful anti-Taliban dispensation in Afghanistan in a postwithdrawal scenario.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

26

According to nationalist mindset, the U.S.-Pakistan alliance is in need of redefinition, and even 

further, the whole gamut of bilateral relations needs to be reevaluated. Pakistan needs to make its 

own cost-benefit analysis. Unlike the Islamists who call for drastic or radical changes, entailing 

degradation of bilateral relations, the nationalists ask for slow, gradual changes and readjustment 

of policies, albeit in the same general direction. They assert that U.S.-Pakistan relations are 

myopic, and increasingly to the detriment of Pakistan.

According to the nationalist view everything that happens in Afghanistan or that the U.S. does 

there, should be attuned to Pakistan’s interests as defined by the nationalists. Further, FATA has 

been economically backward since 1947, and security issues should be superseded by economic 

development. In Afghanistan, the Pashtoon integration in Afghan government is still incomplete, 

which causes resentment among Pashtoons, and in turn, feeds the Taliban insurgency.

Despite some pragmatic aspects of the nationalist mindset outlined above (e.g. development of 

FATA and preventing sudden degradation of U.S.-Pakistan relations etc.), the nationalists remain 

in denial on certain critical issues. First, that Pakistan’s nuclear capability, and a first-use nuclear 

doctrine, cannot coexist with low-intensity warfare due to the Stability-Instability Paradox.19

Secondly, ignoring the need for a counterterrorism policy, the nationalists fail to realize that 

space should be denied to all terrorists, including ‘good’ ones. And this would also be in line 

with UN Resolution 1373. Thirdly, the Islamist threat has reached a level where it challenges the 

state, largely because of the mental and psychological conditioning of society done by the state 

along Islamist lines over the last three decades. The continuation of the collusion-with-Islamists 

policy can have any one of the following reasons, ideological affinity with Islamism, and fear of 

Islamist reprisals or delusions of political co-optation with the Islamists for the sake of 

realpolitik. 

The continued ambiguity toward Islamists would undermine the few rational aspects in the 

nationalist perspective because the Islamists would be able to seize the initiative given their rapid 

advances so far. In order to maintain its realist character, the strategic culture must complete the 

paradigm shift initiated after September 11th. Contrarily, if Islamists were able to gain political 

ground, insider threat to nuclear weapons would increase, and if they acquired command and 

control of nuclear weapons, it would lead to increased risk of nuclear proliferation in the region. 

Nuclear doctrine would become more aggressive and there would be a lowering of nuclear 

threshold as in the first scenario. 

3.3. Defeat of Islamists: Less Likely/Most Desirable Scenario

The outcome of this scenario would be similar to Francis Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ thesis.20 It 

means the end of major warfare and security rivalries. Other relevant concepts are the 

‘democratic peace’ theory,21 and Barry Buzan’s ‘security community’.22 This scenario could lead 

 

19 Michael Krepon, “The Stability-Instability Paradox, Misperception, and Escalation Control in South Asia”, Henry 

L. Stimson Center, (May 2003), 1-20.

20 Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, (Free Press, Reprint edition, 2006).

21 Michael W. Doyle, Liberal Peace: Selected Essays, (New York: Routledge, 2011).
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

27

to a situation similar to Turkey, which is a corridor of energy pipelines; India, which has 

remained democratic and is in an upward economic trajectory, or ASEAN states that have 

emerged as ‘Asian tigers’. 

According to the internationalist view, one of the reasons why states seek regional and global 

stability (e.g. when they resist nuclear proliferation), is their connectivity with the global 

system.23 The military and ideological defeat of Islamists would lead to global linkages and 

would therefore result in nuclear safety, security, arms control, and disarmament. Thus, Pakistan 

must adopt the modernization track, which entails democratization, industrialization, and 

rationalization. Only through this method would Pakistan be able to move out of the feudal 

economy and culture. For the achievement of these goals, Pakistan has no other option but to 

seek peace with India, support the constitutional political dispensation in Afghanistan, and adopt 

a long-term counterterrorism policy. 

In the internationalist view, if the Taliban loses in a post-withdrawal Afghanistan, , their fallback 

option would most likely be Pakistan (both tribal and settled areas). If Taliban succeeded in 

Kabul, Iran and other neighbors may wish to break up Afghanistan along ethnic lines in order to 

get rid of Takfiri Islamism. This would put the burden of managing restive Pashtoons on 

Pakistan, which it would find hard to handle. In either case, if Pakistan tried to repeat the 1989 

example of relocating Islamists from Afghanistan to Kashmir, there would be more turmoil in 

South Asia. Another developing situation that Pakistan would have to consider is the 

rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran. If India and Iran subsequently drew closer and 

Afghanistan also joined this new bloc, then Pakistan would need to revisit its policy paradigm 

toward the Afghan Taliban. Most importantly, even if Pakistan’s strategic objectives were met 

and the Taliban made a successful comeback after U.S. withdrawal, this outcome would not be 

conducive to long-term stability in the region as well as Pakistan’s internal security.

The internationalist view laments the fact that there is a prevalence of conspiracy theories in 

Pakistan, including in print (particularly vernacular) and digital media, which keeps Pakistanis 

insulated from international realities and engaged in a contrarian discourse. A balanced future 

discourse can be brought about through complete media freedom, educational reforms, and some 

sort of interdependence via linkages with the rest of the world. Internationalists believe that the 

strategic culture should not be corrupted by ideological fantasy. The central issue to the 

internationalists is that so far not even the first step toward counterterrorism policy has been 

taken at the public level. This step is the ‘identification of the threat’.24 Even after this first step, 

there would still be a drawn-out effort required to overcome the threat of Islamism. The 

government should be prepared with a long-term counterterrorism policy. 

 

22 Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers: The Structure of International Security, (Cambridge 

University Press, 2003), 174-77.

23 Etel Solingen, “Mapping Internationalization: Domestic and Regional Impacts”, International Studies Quarterly, 

(Vol. 45, Issue 4, December 2001), 517-555

24 Barry Buzan, Ole Waever and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis, (Lynne Rienner 

Publishers, 1998), 25. The authors make the point that an issue can only be ‘securitized’ if the audience accepts it as 

such.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

28

4. Counterterrorism Policy to Achieve the Most Desirable Scenario

The transition from ambiguity to clarity on the issue of Islamism remains incomplete. Therefore, 

realization of counterterrorism policy in Pakistan has been late in coming. And whatever policy 

framework has been formulated still requires the necessary political will for full implementation. 

The counterterrorism effort would be critical to make this transition. It should encompass the 

military, political, economic, and social dimensions of the conflict and enhance state capacity for 

post-conflict reconstruction. There should be greater army-police coordination. The military and 

civilian intelligence agencies should share information in a regular and institutionalized manner. 

An activated National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) with mandate similar to 

Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. should serve as a database where the record of 

each citizen’s official interaction with the state and with other citizens should be maintained. 

NACTA should be provided with the information available with National Registration and 

Database Authority (NADRA) and use of latest technology including biometrics. There should be

financial tracking of every Islamist individual and group. The legal issues including prosecutorial 

capacity of the state should be enhanced so that hardened criminals are not returned to the 

society. The following are the broad areas that need attention:

4.1. Military Operations with a light Footprint

In order to ensure population security, counterterrorism operations should carry a light footprint 

with minimum collateral damage. Heavyset military operations require huge public support, 

which is not regularly forthcoming. Therefore, operations should be carried out on a routine basis 

by small, devolved, and hard-hitting units. The desired result is that there should not be any 

ungoverned spaces on Pakistani territory. 

While, the army has made changes in its doctrine, like the Infantry training manual, for better 

battlefield results since the Swat operation in 2009, there is room for improvement. The FC and 

the 11 Corps that have been at the forefront of the operations in the Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa 

(KPK) province should be provided with increased opportunities to interact with British and U.S. 

counterterrorist units to hone their skills. Equally important, the police should be allowed to 

benefit from international training opportunities to enhance their counterterrorism capacity.

4.2. Role of Science and Technology

Pakistan’s counterterrorism policy should put greater emphasis on science and technology. The 

growing use of technology by Islamists including internet, mobile phones, SMS and twitter, 

should force the law-enforcement agencies to utilize superior technology to circumvent and 

apprehend them. The state through army, police and media should launch an ideological 

offensive to blunt the Islamist narrative of rejection and vengeance. 

The Islamist narrative that labels Pakistani forces as America’s mercenaries needs to be stopped. 

This should be done by a Pakistani counter-narrative within the framework of a counterterrorism 

policy that would present Pakistan’s vantage point on the ideological and policy front. The role 

of technology could be important in launching mass campaigns of de-radicalization of the 

society. Pakistan could, with the help of its international allies particularly the U.S., considerably 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

29

enhance its technological capacity to reestablish the rule of law. Islamists’ financing could be 

checked by use of technology and international collaboration. 

4.3. Preventing Sectarianization of Identity

Figure 4 shows the phenomenon of sectarian violence gaining ground in Pakistan over the last 

four years. Pakistan’ national identity crisis extends along ethnic, linguistic, and socio-economic 

lines exacerbated by growing sectarianism.

Figure 4: Trends of Sectarian Violence (www.san-pips.com)

Source: Policy Brief, Sectarian Violence, Jan 2013, Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) 

The problem of sectarianization has both domestic and regional dimension. The Taliban and 

other terrorist groups belong to the Takfiri sub-sect of the Sunni sect of Islam.25 Such Takfiri 

groups are active in the Middle Eastern region. Pakistan should insulate itself from the sectarian 

strife in the wider region, because since May 1998, Pakistan also possesses the role of a NWS. It 

is important that the sectarian tag should not be attached to its nuclear capability. This would 

increase Pakistan’s problems in a tense South- West Asian neighborhood. 

Domestically, the sectarian polarization should not be allowed to permeate the law enforcement 

agencies. State institutions should re-affirm the secularist principle, which is a prerequisite for 

good governance and justice. The interpretation of the ‘two-nation theory’ as espoused by 

Pakistan’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, envisioned Pakistan as a Muslim, not Islamic, 

state.26 The difference is subtle yet important. If the two-nation theory were construed to 

mean that Pakistan was formed to become an Islamic state, then only ‘sharia laws’ would be 

 

25 The phenomenon of takfir means the declaration of other Muslims as apostate and non-Muslim and therefore liable 

to be murdered. 

26 Two-nation theory presented by Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader) Mohammed Ali Jinnah envisioned Hindus and 

Muslims to be two separate nations and thus entitled to form two separate states, India and Pakistan, after the 

departure of the British from the Subcontinent in 1947.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

30

imposed. Whereas a Muslim state more clearly brings out the original intent of the founding 

fathers to protect the socio-economic rights of the Muslims of Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. It 

means Pakistan seeks to pursue a way of life of its own, but gives due place to concepts of 

liberal democracy, economic development, and human rights particularly minority and women 

rights. 

An ideological offensive in the form of a public relations campaign centered on secularism 

should be launched to counter-radicalize the Islamists, while the Islamist narrative should be 

deconstructed and delegitimized. Furthermore, the society should be de-radicalized. The state 

should change its culture of privileging overt displays of orthodox religiosity begun during 

General Zia’s social engineering program of ‘Islamization’ under the shadow of the Afghan 

‘jihad’ in the 1980s. In contemporary culture, a Taliban-looking man with long hair and baggy 

‘shalwar-kameez’ clothes is more likely to cross the countless police check-posts all over the 

country, than a clean-shaven young man in blue jeans. 

5. Formulation of Counterterrorism Policy: Perspectives for Strategic 

Culture

Since terrorism poses a strategic threat to Pakistan, it naturally follows that it should elicit a 

strategic response. This would entail strategic planning with thematic implications for the 

strategic culture. The most important implication is the preservation of the pragmatic realist 

paradigm of strategic culture. Second, Pakistan should improve its counterterrorism capacity. 

Third, there should be public relations campaign featuring counter-narrative to Islamism. And 

fourth, terrorists’ finances should be cut-off with the help of enhanced international connectivity. 

5.1. Focus on Internal Security

The currently operational Defence Policy of Pakistan 2004, identified India as the main military 

threat to Pakistan. The Defence Policy provides the framework and guidance for the formulation 

of the Joint Strategic Directive (JSD), which is comprehensive in covering all aspects including 

composition, structuring, development plans, training, methodology, and employment strategy 

etc., of the armed services including specific instructions to counter the threat identified by the 

Defence Policy. The last JSD, issued in 2007, specifically stated, “The only major military threat 

to Pakistan was perceived from the east i.e. from India”.27

In 2008, General Ashfaq Kayani, then chief of Pakistan army, asked the General Headquarters, to 

find out the reason behind Pakistan’s military setbacks against the ongoing insurgency. The 

report concluded that the army must focus on population security.28 That report was followed by 

the success in Swat in 2009. It showed the army’s realization of the primacy of the internal threat.

 

27 Testimony of Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, Abbottabad Commission Report, (Al Jazeera, 2013). 

Accessed on Dec 1, 2013. In the testimony, the former Pakistani air chief stated, that in the Defence Policy and the 

JSD, the U.S. was classified as a friendly country. 

28 See Haider Mullick, “Recalibrating U.S.-Pakistan Relations,” The Washington Quarterly, (Center for Strategic and 

International Studies, Summer 2012), 93-107.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

31

By focusing on the internal threat, Pakistani strategic culture’s concern should be to manage the 

booming population of Pakistan (e.g. tracking the movement of men and materials). It is a 

stupendous task that would require joint army-police, ‘whole-of-government’ efforts, and would 

ultimately result in enhanced security and wellbeing of the people of Pakistan.

5.2. Civil-Military Relations

Civil-military relations in Pakistan have been tenuous at best.29 Although for the last decade a 

democratic government has been in place, for this to remain true over the long-term, politicians 

should promote greater civil-military collaboration. Counterterrorism policy would have to be 

whole-of-government effort. Unfortunately, the general elections in May 2013 saw center-right 

parties that were considered Taliban-neutral if not Taliban-friendly.30 Along with the 

traditional power-wielders i.e. civil-military bureaucracy, there are three new political players. 

First, there are center-right political parties in the central government and three of the four 

provinces. Secondly, there is a right-wing media. And thirdly, there is right-wing judiciary, 

revitalized as a result of the lawyers’ movement in 2007. 

Soft borders impact upon Pakistan’s internal sovereignty. The state’s weakening legitimate 

monopoly of violence has important implication for nuclear security. In the past, the military’s 

intelligence agencies shortsightedly extended the means of coercion to non-state actors. 

Currently, private militias and ‘lashkars’ proliferate even though according to Article 256 of 

Pakistani constitution there cannot exist armed groups within the territory of Pakistan.31

Pakistan needs administrative and bureaucratic reform. In FATA, there needs to be a nuanced 

understanding of the habits and habitat of tribal people. The British administered FATA by 

indirect means (via tribal elders) due to its inhospitable terrain and volatile politics. Pakistan 

could not devise an enduring administrative mechanism for these areas after 1947. Hence 

FATA remained a lawless belt in Pakistani territory. Historically, the tribes excelled at doubledealing with the central government in order to gain political concessions. Both for FATA and 

Punjab-based Taliban, the political parties would have to sign on the counterterrorism policy, 

discard any right-wing bias, lead from the front to build public opinion, and exhibit firmness 

and maturity for the policy’s success. 

5.3. International Connectivity

Figure 5 demonstrates the dismal economic indicators of Pakistan. On the Human Development 

Index (HDI), Pakistan ranks 146th out of 187 countries. In South Asia, Pakistan is placed below 

the regional average. Pakistan’s economy has been growing at three percent for the last three 

years and is projected to remain so for the coming three years. Pakistan should try to escape the 

 

29 Hasan-Askari Rizvi, Military, State and Society in Pakistan, (England: Macmillan, 2000).

30 “Text of the APC resolution,” Daily The News, September 10, 2013, www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-

201085-Text-of-the-APC-resolution

31 Article 256 of the Constitution of Pakistan reads, “Private Armies Forbidden: No private organization capable 

of functioning as a military organization shall be formed, and any such organization shall be illegal”.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

32

negative effects of this economic downturn. Pakistan’s role as a trading nation instead of a 

manufacturing nation offers a way out of this pattern. 

Figure 5: Pakistan - The Human Development Index32

Pakistan possesses the potential to serve as a trade corridor and highway for pipelines. Two 

routes of the ancient Silk Road historically connected East and West. The northern Silk Road via 

China, and the southern via Pakistan. The Silk Road was re-invented as the Grand Trunk Road, 

which connected Kabul with Calcutta, by the 15th century Pashtoon ruler of India, Sher Shah 

Suri. Since independence in 1947, Pakistan has served as a barrier, rather than a conduit, between 

Central Asia and South Asia. That policy should change. India too should be convinced to take 

into account the immense potential the corridor holds for her. A non-Taliban, secure and free 

Afghanistan is the best possible partner for this future. All three states, India, Pakistan and 

Afghanistan, would have to break out of the zero-sum mode. Economic linkages and 

interdependence, once established, can lead to war-avoidance and conflict-resolution. 

The lack of education has made Pakistani society increasingly insensitive to growing violence, 

injustice and corruption. The increased connectivity can help Pakistan improve its level of 

 

32 The Human Development Index (HDI) provides a composite measure of three basic dimensions of human 

development: health, education and income. Between 1980 and 2012 Pakistan's HDI rose by 1.3% annually from 

0.337 to 0.515 today, which gives the country a rank of 146 out of 187 countries with comparable data. The HDI of 

South Asia as a region increased from 0.357 in 1980 to 0.558 today, placing Pakistan below the regional average. 

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/PAK.html
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

33

education. Pakistan should build on cultural links with India, Iran and Afghanistan to reform its 

education system, both in the public sector and the madrassah sector.

Finally, the emphasis of civilian U.S. support should be on four areas i.e. education, science and 

technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, and inculcation of good governance to entrench 

this policy. In defence-related collaboration, the transfer of U.S. weapons to Pakistan should be 

counterterrorism-oriented. The U.S. support should be aimed at disrupting terrorist 

communications and tracking terrorist finances. Thus U.S.-Pakistan relations should shift away 

from focus on traditional security to countering sub-conventional threats, and socio-political 

development. 

6. Conclusion

Pakistan has a huge youth population. It must be gainfully employed and out of reach of terrorist 

recruiters. Young people ultimately develop a sense of disenfranchisement and turn against the 

state. If the state’s position remains ambiguous toward Islamists for reasons of realpolitik or 

ideological affinity, it would lose the initiative at their hands. Pakistan’s cultural identity could 

witness transformation with potentially grave consequences for its domestic outlook, policies 

toward regional stability, and global isolation. Similarly in case of forcible take over by Islamists, 

Pakistan could cause regional and global instability by seeking to become a player in the IsraelArab and the Iran-Arab issues. The scenario of take over-by-Islamists remains least likely due to 

army and civilian administrative capacity. But the government ambiguity toward Islamists could 

be their route-to-power. The lack of state-will could provide encouragement to Islamism, which 

currently does not seem unlikely.

The strategic culture is the institutionalization of strategy, crafted in view of national interests. 

The strategic culture reflected in organizations like the military is not subject to frequent 

changes. However, the emergence of a crisis necessitates change. Pakistan made one such change 

in 1972 when it decided to forego conventional deterrence against India and opted for the nuclear 

option. A second change in strategic culture was necessitated after September 11th when 

Pakistan was forced to abandon the policy of support for Islamism in Afghanistan. However, the 

second change was incomplete. The policy of abandoning the Islamists was half-hearted and 

partial. That has led to a gap between strategy and objective environment. The Islamist non-state 

actors are taking advantage of this gap to the detriment of national security. Also with India, nonstate actors threaten to damage the fragile cold peace that currently prevails. 

Pakistan should not make facile distinctions between Islamist groups. There are currently four 

main categories. The Kashmir-focused; Afghanistan-focused; Shia-focused, and Pakistanfocused. However, as far as the aims, objectives and central ideology is concerned, the difference 

of names is just a reflection of their geographical distribution and division of labor. It would not 

be wrong to assume that ideologically all of these groups fall under the umbrella of Al Qaeda. 

Whether they are local, regional or global in reach, their objectives are the same: rejection of 

modernity, use of violence, elimination of minorities in Muslim countries and non-Muslims 
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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worldwide, and bringing down apostate Muslim governments (those states that do not impose 

Sharia laws). Pakistan cannot retain its cultural identity if it accommodates any of these groups. 

There are obstacles to counterterrorism policy at the societal level. There is unchallenged 

misrepresentation of Islam. Islamic discourse has not been permitted to reform at the public level 

due to political exigencies of successive governments in the Muslim World. There is the 

Pakistanis’ desire to be the most righteous within their communities. Also, the Pakistani Muslims 

are the prisoners of words, swayed by displays of ritualistic piety. The phenomenon of quasiliberalism in the urban classes allows regressive thinking to prevail at the political level while 

maintaining social liberalism. 

There are certain noteworthy examples of successful counterterrorism policies. There was a long 

drawn effort on the part of Ottoman rulers to dismantle the elite janissaries corps, which had 

become very powerful. It was finally eliminated in 1826, and that allowed Turkey to evolve into 

a modern Turkish republic in 1923. Then there is the example of Algeria where the radical 

Islamists threatened the state during the 1990s, but the state did not open negotiations with them 

till two years after their surrender. Now Algeria is among the successful regional economies. 

Also, Sri Lanka fought the Tamils for two decades and finally eliminated the threat of secession. 

The lesson for Pakistan in these examples is to fight for its own survival in the face of existential 

threat from within.

The concept of territorial sovereignty exists both at the external and the internal level. While the 

threat to external sovereignty is posed by other states the threat to internal sovereignty comes 

from insurgents based inside national borders. A dangerous dimension of the threat to internal 

sovereignty exists in non-state actors using Pakistan’s territory to launch attacks against other 

states. This can provoke retaliation by those states attacked by the non-state groups. Pakistan 

must safeguard against the possibility of being forced into an unwanted war with any state due to 

its inability to rein in non-state actors on its soil. 
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Appendix A: A Migrant State33

Various internal dynamics in Pakistan—including the ever-increasing importance of religion, the 

army’s intervention in politics, the rise of ethnic movements, and the weakening of democracy—

can be attributed to the phenomenon of migration. At the time of partition, both India and 

Pakistan received migrants from across the border: 4.4 million and 7.2 million, respectively. 

However, the political impact of migration on the two countries was substantially different. In 

post-independence India, migrants accounted for 1 percent of the population, coming from 

peripheral areas of British India now included in Pakistan. However, those of migrant stock 

represent 20 percent of the population in Pakistan today. Every fifth household in Pakistan, every 

fourth in Punjab and Sindh provinces, and more than half in Karachi are “migrant.” A new ethnic 

hierarchy emerged with Urdu-speaking migrants, or the mohajirs, on top followed by Punjabis—

both migrants and locals—with Bengalis, Pakhtuns, Sindhis, and the Baloch at the bottom. 

Overrepresented in cities and in the professional and commercial middle classes in Punjab and 

Sindh, migrants exercised a disproportionately high level of influence on the developing state 

and society. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the first governor-general (1947-1948), and Liaquat Ali 

Khan, the first prime minister (1947-1951), were both migrants.

The migrant leadership, with its constituency back in India, soon realized that elections would be 

disruptive for the new ruling set-up. This new elite created a bureaucratic polity that emphasized 

the rule of law rather than the rule of public representatives, a phenomenon that persisted through 

the time of the military rulers. Stemming from the tradition of the viceroys in British India, 

power gravitated in Pakistan into the hands of the governor general and then the president.34

Constitutionalism was tempered by institutionalism and undercut by the doctrine of “state 

necessity.”35 A power struggle emerged between the state apparatus, represented by the middle 

class, and the landed and tribal elite, which came to constitute the “political class.”

The migrant-led and military leadership privileged the middle class at the expense of the political 

class. Composed mostly of Punjabis and the mohajirs, the middle class represents the educated, 

professional, and commercial interests in the modern sector and is at the heart of the permanent 

institutions of the state represented by the officer cadre of the army and civil bureaucracy. 

Although socially progressive, the middle class is politically conservative; in fact, it abhors the 

idea of parliamentary rule, finding it akin to dispersion and dilution of state authority. Military 

rulers drew on the support of the middle class to “presidentialize” the parliamentary system of 

the country.36

 

33 Excerpt taken from Mohammad Waseem, Patterns of Conflict in Pakistan: Implications for Policy, Working 

Paper, Number 5, January 2011, Saban Center, Brookings, Washington D.C., U.S.

34 K.B. Sayeed, The Political System of Pakistan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967), 62-63.

35 Paula R. Newberg, “Balancing Act: Prudence, Impunity and Pakistan’s Jurisprudence,” in Routledge Handbook of 

South Asian Politics: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, ed. Paul R. Brass (New York: Routledge, 

2010), 182-83.

36 See for example, the 1962 Constitution, the 8th Amendment passed under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the 17th 

Amendment passed under Pervez Musharraf.
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The political class is more inclusive and representative of the nation because it represents 

Sindhis, Pakhtuns, and the Baloch and the non-elite sections of the population in Punjab and 

urban Sindh. Nonetheless, the political class in Pakistan is inherently weak. It is socially and 

culturally conservative and less educated. In the postcolonial state of Pakistan, the only way to 

political power available to this class is through elections. The political class upholds the 

constitutional source of legitimacy in principle—and seeks to operate through the parliament and 

political parties—but essentially functions as a broker between the largely illiterate, inchoate, and 

inarticulate masses and the remote, impersonal, and English-based state for articulation of the 

former’s interests.
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About the Author

Dr. Muhammad Tehsin is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Defence and 

Strategic Studies at Quaid-I-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan. He received his PhD in 

International Relations from the University of Vienna, focusing on Iranian Nuclear Proliferation 

as well as nuclear proliferation throughout the Middle East and South Asia.
Pakistan’s Strategic Culture

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