State Fragility and the Challenge of Violent Extremism in Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan, Violent Extremism (VE) is both the cause and outcome of state fragility. Pakistan’s existing Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) framework involving de- radicalization of ex-militants, counter-radicalization messaging, outlawing of militant groups, and criminalization of hate speech needs to be enhanced to address the long-term root causes of VE. Hence, beyond corrective and preventive PCVE approaches, the country also needs to focus on the more structural causes of VE linked to its efforts to construct religious nationalism while supressing more organic forms of ethnic and regional sub-nationalism. Divided into three sections, the first part of this chapter conceptualizes VE within the broader context of state fragility and applies it to the Pakistani experience. This context-specific experiential analysis provides a spatial appraisal of the fragility-induced VE in the country. The second section outlines Pakistan’s hard PCVE initiatives. The final section analyses soft PCVE measures and how they are addressing VE in the context of state fragility.