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Fragile States: Pakistan State-Society Analysis
April 6, 2009. Produced under the Democratization and Transitional Justice cluster of the Initiative for Peacebuilding, this report helps revealing the complex historical interaction between formal and informal factors, and their eventual influence on the nature of the current relationship between the Pakistani state and its citizens. It is structured around the three main dimensions of the State-Society Analytical Framework (SSAF), a methodology developed within the cluster. The analysis emphasizes the importance of factors such as the country's colonial history, its geopolitical position, the deep-running social systems, and the main actors competing for power, in understanding the current situation of fragility affecting the country. In the midst of a rather bleak picture, some elements still emerge that if properly interpreted and acted upon, could offer the international community significant opportunities to support long-term processes of genuine democratization and building of substantive citizenship for most Pakistanis. Download PDF (1 Mb)