Daily Times

With new vision and inspiration Pakistan is back on the track with unity, faith and discipline, the basic ingredients of nation building. Highly commendable is General Raheel Sharif’s commitment to stern action against all violent groups and militants, including militants in the political parties, especially those based in Karachi. One must also commend the new zeal and commitment demonstrated by the nation and its leadership, and the sentiment of President Mamnoon Hussain who said that a Kashmir solution was the only way towards durable peace, which must be resolved in accordance with Kashmiri aspirations. On a happy note, one must also highlight the Indian premier’s message of greetings to Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif over his effort to resolve issues through talks. We should expect that Mr Modi means what he says.
Speaking in Lahore during the centenary celebrations of the 10th Infantry Division, army chief General Raheel Sharif emphasised the need for a robust conflict resolution mechanism, an absence of which has led to devastating war. The army chief said that World War I serves as a sharp reminder of how the international community needs to show urgency in resolving long standing international disputes. Regional and international peace and security issues often involve complex dimensions that need to be thoroughly explored, analysed and researched to draw valid and reliable conclusions as a base for identification of problems, policy formulation and developing strategies for ultimate solutions of problems, addressing vital issues that could trigger another war, more dangerous than even before. Politics, as the discipline most concerned with the analysis and explanation of the dynamics of power, stands at a crossroads where other disciplines in the social sciences intersect. A multidisciplinary approach and analysis is a guidepost that helps nations resolve internal and external conflicts.
Defining politics and specifying the content of the discipline of politics are themselves political processes. There are no ‘official’ definitions of politics or, indeed, what the discipline of politics should contain or teach, though in recent years some efforts have been made in the UK to do this through the so-called ‘benchmark statement’ of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education where the discipline of politics is described as being concerned with developing a knowledge and understanding of government and society.
Despite the many differences in approach, what unites political analysts is a concern with the provenance, forms, distribution, use, control, consequences and analysis of political power. What separates them is the differences in their focus and the levels and frameworks of analysis. Anyone entering the discipline of politics for the first time should be prepared to encounter a rich and pluralistic enterprise that is, above all things, an explanatory enterprise, concerned with understanding the forms and features of political power and explaining its uses, abuse and both its policy and practical consequences.
The ‘facts’ of politics do not speak for themselves. We need concepts and theories, which are really the frameworks of analysis, if we are to make any explanatory sense of them at all. And some of the debates within politics, the discipline, are rarely about the facts but about which concepts and theories best explain those facts. In a much more fundamental way, thinking politically means thinking (and listening) with curiosity about how best to explain, politically, why things have come to be, how they work as they are and with what consequences, what might happen next and why, and what might be necessary for them to be made different, should that be thought appropriate. Anyone who can explore or seek to combine alternative explanatory approaches to the uses and abuses of power will have begun to think politically. And that is a pretty good start.
Going beyond the question of definition of politics in the experts’ view and the need to study political institutions and processes of our own and that of other countries for comparative learning, studies have to focus on real issues and challenges. As Pakistan’s new Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said, the world is undergoing fundamental changes. Some of these changes pose new challenges while others offer opportunities. She rightly stressed that the first and foremost need was to promote Pakistan’s vital national interests and ensure that the country’s policies and views on critical issues are clearly articulated and fully understood. There is need to change the narrative about Pakistan by placing the accent on the positive while trying to build understanding about how purposively Pakistan is addressing its multiple challenges.
The establishment of internal peace and stability is the topmost current priority, which requires a vigorous law enforcement campaign that is underway, aimed at defeating militancy and countering violent extremism. Ambassador Lodhi said, “Pakistani diplomats need to build a better international understanding of this campaign against terrorism and violent extremism as well as build support for Pakistan’s efforts in this context.”
Like the leader of any other nation, the first priority of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani must be to look after Afghan interests. Pakistan is actively engaged in efforts to help the Afghan government in its objective to initiate an intra-Afghan dialogue, to eventually secure durable peace. That would be in line with our priority to secure Pakistan’s western border. Peace and stability in South Asia is vital for Pakistan in addressing the issue of Kashmir. Currently, the seriously fraught border situation with India is the ongoing conflict that worries and kills Pakistani villagers on a daily basis.
Politics and diplomacy go hand in hand. Political wisdom and appropriate/meaningful diplomatic initiatives can only serve to secure and assure world peace and hence development, welfare and unity in diversity. Thinking politically and diplomatically is a way forward. The international community must take notice of behaviours and attitudes around the globe that lead to conflict. Developing conflict resolution mechanisms is essential for peace and security and to avoid war.

The writer is a former director, National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), a political analyst, public policy expert and an author. His book Post 9/11 Pakistan has been published in the US