The Pakistan – US Conundrum

With the end of the Cold War there has been a paradigmatic shift associated with the rise of a neoconservative influence over Western policy makers, social scientists and the chattering classes, from discourses around socio- economic and political causation to debates around culture. The origins of this development can be found in the intellectual ferment, among Cold-War warriors, that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Writers like Samuel Huntingtion, Bernard Lewis and Gilles Kepel, among others, proposed that a new paradigm of conflict was emerging in the changing realities of the post-Cold-War world. There was now a new antagonism, between Islam and the West. This new thesis suggested future conflicts would be culture- based confrontations. For Huntington and Lewis, Islam – and not simply ‘fundamentalism’ – was irreconcilable with Western values and was therefore destined to lead to conflict. Since 9/11 there has been a vigorous revival of anti-Muslim discourse in the West, where it is conflated with terrorism and used to target Muslim populations across the globe.

Pakistan is situated within the context of this discourse of cultural racism which has become prevalent in Western media and policy circles and some intellectual circles. This discourse is in part perpetuated by diplomatic manoeuvrings of states that are antagonistic to Pakistan; in particular India and Israel, who would like to see the ‘war on terror’ target Pakistan. There are a number of arguments that excoriate Islam generally for despotism, terrorism and violence but are specific to Pakistan: democracy, Islamism, nuclear weapons and the position of women are common themes that resonate in influential circles.