Anatomization of Pakistan’s National Security Policy 2022-2026: Strategic Hitches and Way Forward for Peace and Security in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper analyses Pakistan’s National Security Policy 2022-2026. The state of Pakistan has officially presented its first National Security Policy in 2022. The policy crystallizes all multi-dimensional policy domains into a national security framework and it serves as this paper’s pivotal analysis point. The paper analyses the policy by asking the following questions: What are the limitations and fault lines in the policy framework, where are the gaps and apertures, and what are the possible way-outs? The paper employs a classical 5-step analytical frameworkof policyanalysis. Theanalysis suggestsconceptual and practical, foreign policy recommendations. National security framework side tracks the guns vs. butter and geopolitics vs. geo-economics by terming it as a stagnant logic leading to a contradictory logic. The paper reveals that such an attempt translates into inconsistencies in the conceptual and practical domains and results in foreign policy stalemates. The findings suggest that shifting focus from economic to politico-economic security, greater distribution to equitable distributary mechanism, putting human security at its core as a peace dividend with traditional and politico-economic securities gearing to it, and adopting an environmental peace-building and inclusive regional approach could mend the policy lacunas