Ties that don’t bind: challenges in the cooperation between academia and national security establishment in Pakistan

Abstract

ABSTRACT The collaboration between academia and the national security policy community has an established precedent in Western countries despite the numerous challenges that exist in the engagement. The West, however, constitutes a very small sample size that receives disproportionate attention in studying global policy often at times at the neglect of non-Western policy experiences. This paper, therefore, takes a decolonial approach using the case study of Pakistan to provide evidence on the challenges in the cooperation between academia and the national security establishment. The paper argues that a postcolonial state like Pakistan faces a twin challenge at the structural and operational level that stunts collaboration between academics and the national security establishment. The challenges in the collaboration are as much about power as they are about information, cultural and technical gaps between the two worlds. The paper is a first of its kind diagnostic study that explores the subject at greater depth using empirical evidence from the ground. The insights from the paper are equally relevant to other postcolonial states in the region including India and Bangladesh.