PAKISTAN’S COUNTER VIOLENT EXTREMISM (CVE) OVERTURES – AN UNFINISHED TASK!

Abstract

Violent Extremism has a history to itself and has caused inhuman manifestations – Genocide, Mass Killings, and Live deaths across the world. In the present age of digital connectivity and its manipulation, illicit money flow, fungible borders, misuse of religion, racial identity, and ethnic groundings have all contributed to the furthering of Violent Extremism at the national, regional and global levels. Force-based counter-terrorism response mechanisms serve as one of the critical mediums for restoring the nation-state’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and also led to the international coalition of forces, WOT (War on Terror), following the 9/11 WTC Attacks in the United States. Parallel to this, CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) implies the conception, policy formulation and implementation through the non-kinetic steps. Ideally, this task requires a healthy partnership between the state and society, which remains an ongoing effort for most states. Pakistan is also faced with multi-faceted and multi-layered Violent Extremism (VE) trends that question its basis of formation and necessitate a proactive and holistic CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) policy. This research study deliberates upon the responsive mechanism of the state versus violent extremism and highlights the gaps and challenges. In doing so, ‘Spectrum Matrix – P3 (Perception, Policy and Practice)’ is proposed and employed as a methodological lens to analyse Pakistan’s CVE (counter violent extremism) enterprise.  The central argument is that Islamabad CVE is a work in progress, and across the board, ‘state-society’ ownership remains an uphill task.

Bibliography Entry

Fayyaz, Dr. Shabana. 2024. "Pakistan’s Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) Overtures – An Unfinished Task!." Strategic Thought (6): 19-40.