Papers by Ahmed W . Waheed
South Asia Research, 2017
In Pakistan, the field of international relations (IR) theory remains firmly embedded in the ‘rea... more In Pakistan, the field of international relations (IR) theory remains firmly embedded in the ‘realist’ tradition, to the detriment of a wider range of considerations. This stranglehold, strengthened by the particular evolutionary trajectory of the Pakistani state as well as a complacent academia, seems to have created a vicious circle of knowledge reproduction, reinforced by various bids for power, or proximity to it. This article scrutinises specifically the dominant understandings in Pakistan of state sovereignty and security in a broadly historical perspective, showing how the rise of the military, combined with security paranoia, has prevented academic creativity in this field, including scrutiny of recent concerns over rather close China–Pakistan links.
Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 2017
Despite having poured billions of dollars of aid into Pakistan’s economy and its military over th... more Despite having poured billions of dollars of aid into Pakistan’s economy and its military over the years, there is a general acceptability among scholars and policymakers that the United States exercises limited leverage in Pakistan. Although India remains the centrepiece in US–Pakistan policy divergences, US frustrations often stem from the ineffectiveness of its aid-for-leverage policy, especially given Pakistan’s dependence on US military assistance. The limited US influence in Pakistan can best be understood within the framework of patron–client relationship and arms dependence. If the theory suggests anything, it is that various factors including US and Pakistan’s behaviour contribute in channelling the relationship towards its apparent demise. Most important within these is China’s central role in helping Pakistan indigenize its military production and diversify its arms supply. In that sense, then, China has colluded with Pakistan in indirectly limiting US influence in Pakist...
Asian Affairs, 2013
ABSTRACT
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this p... more The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
Constructing 'Pakistan' through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies, 2019
The feeble and marginal participation of Pakistani scholars and academics in the processes of int... more The feeble and marginal participation of Pakistani scholars and academics in the processes of international knowledge production cannot be left alone to publishing processes which are tacitly exclusionary and grant more credibility to knowledge produced in the western ‘intellectual’ centers. In this regard, a study of how International Relations scholarship is produced from Pakistan requires more insight into the exogenous and endogenous processes through which scholars and academics produce knowledge about Pakistan. This chapter firstly analyzes the exogenous factors responsible for inhibiting periphery scholars from challenging the dominating discourse. These dominant exogenous factors include the prevalence of academic capitalism and the mercantilization of higher education that followed as a consequence of academic ‘yardsticks’, and the imposition of English as a Lingua Franca for publishing in internationally reputable journals. Secondly, the chapter explores endogenous factors...
This chapter argues that even though research in International Relations has often sought to expl... more This chapter argues that even though research in International Relations has often sought to explore how representational identities are constructed, they have seldom analyzed the processes within the International Relations community through which these identities are produced and circulated to the wider International Relations community. The chapter analyzes the discourse on Pakistan by exploring the knowledge-production processes through which the International Relations community has come to ‘know’ Pakistan. Instead this study investigates another question. How is the meaning of Pakistan fixed or stabilized via practices of the International Relations community? The chapter initially explores top journals in the field of International Relations and analyzes dominant trends in the study of Pakistan. Through an analysis of these academic contributions the chapter firstly explains how knowledge-production processes and their intrinsic connection to pedagogy become conduits for the ...
Constructing 'Pakistan' through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies, 2019
This chapter begins by exploring the development of the Area Studies enterprise beginning in the ... more This chapter begins by exploring the development of the Area Studies enterprise beginning in the Cold War. The chapter argues that during the Cold War, Pakistan caught the attention of western policy-makers for primarily security reasons and continues to do so, for this reason most of the scholarship on Pakistan is largely focused on Pakistan’s security and Pakistan’s relationship with ‘international’ security. The chapter further explores Area Studies centers for their potential in producing knowledge on Pakistan. The data on Area Studies centers unveils two distinct patterns. First, it has unveiled the endemic lack of interest on the part of western knowledge producers in knowing Pakistan and the other states that make up the South Asian region. Secondly, while true to their proposed research ambit, South Asian area study centers across the West have intellectually explored India across the depths and breadths of various disciplines, so that the study of India has become a truly m...
The Routledge Handbook on South Asian Foreign Policy, 2021
This chapter explores Pakistan’s foreign policy towards the United States by tracing them through... more This chapter explores Pakistan’s foreign policy towards the United States by tracing them through the Cold War all the way back to its inception in 1947. The chapter delves into the historical circumstances that gave rise to Pakistan’s regional and international security imperatives to understand how relations with the United States became one of its main concerns. The chapter then moves to explore the dynamics of the Cold War which solidified the relationship in the face of the Soviet threat. However, while Pakistan’s foreign policy had specific needs which remained consistent throughout time, it was the divergences emerging from the United States which led to periods of uncomfortable alliances and embitterment. The divergences that occurred in the aftermath of the Cold War had strong ramifications for Pakistan who came to view the US as an untrustworthy ally. Finally the chapter will also provide a detailed analysis of Pakistan’s move away from dependence on the US replacing its previous patron with China. In this way the chapter covers and analyses three different temporal intervals, the Cold War, the War in Afghanistan and the War on Terror to provide a detailed landscape of the variations in Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Perspectives on Contemporary Pakistan: Governance, Development and Environment, 2020
This chapter examines the growing debates on cosmopolitanism that has come to dominate much of ... more This chapter examines the growing debates on cosmopolitanism that has come to dominate much of the International Relations literature on intervention and state sovereignty. It provides a detailed exposition of the various theoretical concerns of cosmopolitanism theorists. The chapter critiques cosmopolitan conceptions of state sovereignty by situating them within the parameters of Pakistan’s experience with the international institutions, such as UN, the IMF, the World Bank and Interpol. It is argued that cosmopolitanism theorists ignore the considerable influence of the US on these international organisations and in the face of such influence Pakistan remains sceptical of their motives and consequentially, more resiliently attached to its realist idea of state sovereignty. The chapter highlights and covers Pakistan’s reaction to cosmopolitanism and demonstrates that this reaction is largely representative of its fragile insecurities because of it being caught in an anarchic hierarchical structure comprised of unequal power arrangements, reinforced with baggage borrowed from its colonial past.
In Pakistan, the field of international relations (IR) theory
remains firmly embedded in the ‘rea... more In Pakistan, the field of international relations (IR) theory
remains firmly embedded in the ‘realist’ tradition, to the detriment
of a wider range of considerations. This stranglehold, strengthened
by the particular evolutionary trajectory of the Pakistani state as well
as a complacent academia, seems to have created a vicious circle of
knowledge reproduction, reinforced by various bids for power, or
proximity to it. This article scrutinises specifically the dominant
understandings in Pakistan of state sovereignty and security in a
broadly historical perspective, showing how the rise of the military,
combined with security paranoia, has prevented academic creativity
in this field, including scrutiny of recent concerns over rather close
China–Pakistan links.
Despite having poured billions of dollars of aid into Pakistan's economy and its military over th... more Despite having poured billions of dollars of aid into Pakistan's economy and its military over the years, there is a general acceptability among scholars and policy-makers that the United States exercises limited leverage in Pakistan. Although India remains the centrepiece in US–Pakistan policy divergences, US frustrations often stem from the ineffectiveness of its aid-for-leverage policy, especially given Pakistan's dependence on US military assistance. The limited US influence in Pakistan can best be understood within the framework of patron–client relationship and arms dependence. If the theory suggests anything, it is that various factors including US and Pakistan's behaviour contribute in channelling the relationship towards its apparent demise. Most important within these is China's central role in helping Pakistan indigenize its military production and diversify its arms supply. In that sense, then, China has colluded with Pakistan in indirectly limiting US influence in Pakistan and the trend suggests that this collaboration will further reduce US leverage over Pakistan.
To talk of the failure of democracy in Pakistan is to imply that success is possible. But what wo... more To talk of the failure of democracy in Pakistan is to imply that success is possible. But what would success look like? .It must involve more than just the holding of elections. So is it possible for true democracy ever to be successful in Pakistan? Three factors make success unlikely, if not impossible; the grip on power exercised by the traditional feudal elite; the way in which the masses see their votes in economic rather than in political terms; the strength of the military's role in society and politics arising from Pakistan's geo-strategic position, which also influences the choices of outside actors.
Books by Ahmed W . Waheed
Constructing 'Pakistan' through Knowledge Production in International Relations and Area Studies, 2019
Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
This book analyses the discourse on Pakistan by exploring the knowledge production processes thro... more This book analyses the discourse on Pakistan by exploring the knowledge production processes through which the International Relations community, Asian and South Asian area study centres, and think-tanks construct Pakistan’s identity. This book does not attempt to trace how Pakistan has been historically defined, explained, or understood by the International Relations interpretive communities or to supplant these understandings with the author’s version of what Pakistan is. Instead, this study focuses on investigating how the identity of Pakistan is fixed or stabilized via practices of the interpretive communities. In other words, this book attempts to address the following questions: How is the knowledge on Pakistan produced discursively? How is this knowledge represented in the writings on Pakistan? What are the conditions under which it is possible to make authoritative claims about Pakistan?
The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan's state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US... more The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan's state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US, both during the Cold War era and the War on Terror. This examination becomes all the more important considering that recent contentious issues between Pakistan and the US, such as the US drone strikes, the Kerry–Lugar Bill and the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, have impacted on Pakistan's staunch defence of its state sovereignty. The book explores this state sovereignty from three different but interwoven vantage points. Firstly, it observes US–Pakistan relations within the patron– client framework and examines the contours of Pakistan's dependence and the vagaries of US patronal influence. Secondly, it analyses Pakistan's state sovereignty in light of changing discourse on the theme. Lastly, it examines Pakistan's state sovereignty within the purview of its fragile state status. While various contributions have provided insight on how the international community has come to view Pakistan's state fragility, this book attempts a detailed understanding of how the Pakistani state interprets its reputation as an ostensible fragile state.
The Wrong Ally: Pakistan's State Sovereignty under US Dependence, 2018
The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US... more The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US, both during the Cold War era and the War on Terror. This examination becomes all the more important considering that recent contentious issues between Pakistan and the US, such as the US drone strikes, the Kerry–Lugar Bill and the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, have impacted on Pakistan’s staunch defence of its state sovereignty. The book explores this state sovereignty from three different but interwoven vantage points. Firstly, it observes US–Pakistan relations within the patron–client framework and examines the contours of Pakistan’s dependence and the vagaries of US patronal influence. Secondly, it analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in light of changing discourse on the theme. Lastly, it examines Pakistan’s state sovereignty within the purview of its fragile state status. While various contributions have provided insight on how the international community has come to view Pakistan’s state fragility, this book attempts a detailed understanding of how the Pakistani state interprets its reputation as an ostensible fragile state.
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Papers by Ahmed W . Waheed
remains firmly embedded in the ‘realist’ tradition, to the detriment
of a wider range of considerations. This stranglehold, strengthened
by the particular evolutionary trajectory of the Pakistani state as well
as a complacent academia, seems to have created a vicious circle of
knowledge reproduction, reinforced by various bids for power, or
proximity to it. This article scrutinises specifically the dominant
understandings in Pakistan of state sovereignty and security in a
broadly historical perspective, showing how the rise of the military,
combined with security paranoia, has prevented academic creativity
in this field, including scrutiny of recent concerns over rather close
China–Pakistan links.
Books by Ahmed W . Waheed
remains firmly embedded in the ‘realist’ tradition, to the detriment
of a wider range of considerations. This stranglehold, strengthened
by the particular evolutionary trajectory of the Pakistani state as well
as a complacent academia, seems to have created a vicious circle of
knowledge reproduction, reinforced by various bids for power, or
proximity to it. This article scrutinises specifically the dominant
understandings in Pakistan of state sovereignty and security in a
broadly historical perspective, showing how the rise of the military,
combined with security paranoia, has prevented academic creativity
in this field, including scrutiny of recent concerns over rather close
China–Pakistan links.