“Permanent Coup D’état:” The Historical and Institutional Foundations of Military Intervention in Pakistan
Aqil Shah, Society of Fellows, Harvard University
Chair: Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University
Military meddling in civilian affairs has been a marked feature of Pakistani politics since independence in 1947. Aqil Shah’s research shows that sustained military intervention is a historical legacy of the gross imbalance of civil-military power established during that formative period under conditions of weak “stateness,” warfare and cold war alliances. Placing Pakistan in comparative perspective, Shah’s research examines the mechanisms by which its civil-military relations can be democratized.
Co-sponsored with the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University