Pakistan and Afghanistan:
Connecting the Problems and the Solutions
INTL 407/507 (CRN 42406/42407) Professor Anita M. Weiss
Summer 2012, June 26-July 26, T, Th 4 - 8:50 pm Office: 307 PLC; 346-3245
116 Education Hours: by appointment
This seminar is designed to introduce participants to contemporary sociopolitical issues in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with a focus on how the fates of these two countries have become intertwined in the past three decades. Our starting point is 1979: the year Zia ul-Haq implemented his Islamization program (in February) and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan (in December). The reverberations from these two events continue to affect the fates of both countries.
We begin with an overview of Pakistan’s political history since the 1970s, emphasizing those issues that contributed to cultural and political breaks from the past. These include, notably, the implications from Zia’s Islamization program and the influence of Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Dawah movements. We then turn to Afghanistan and the resultant mobilization of Muslims from around the world by the U.S. to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan including the founding of an organization to help them settle in to wage this jihad, The Base, now known as al-Qaeda. We then turn to look at how these events irretrievably transformed both Pakistan and Afghanistan, exploring the 'culture wars' which plague Pakistan today, and address the subsequent rise of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and then later (a separate one) in Pakistan. As part of this discussion, we look at how political changes within Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1990s and this past decade affected perceptions of external threats, the continued rise in influence of Islamist discourse, and how the Kashmir conflict further aggravated regional geopolitics.
We then turn our attention to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 and the subsequent victory of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a coalition of six Islamist political parties in the NWFP provincial elections in October 2002. We will look at the rise of the Pakistan Taliban movement in part as a response to continued U.S. military involvement in the region, and events of spring 2009 with the TNSM takeover of Swat and the subsequent military response. We conclude by considering potential paths for the future of this region.
Class format
Professor Weiss will open each class with a short lecture on the issues which are raised in the various assigned readings. When possible, these lectures will be augmented by film clips and discussion questions and then extensive in-class discussion.. Each day will include a 15-minute break sometime between 6 - 6:30 pm.
There will be assigned readings for each day which can be found in the following required texts (available at the UO bookstore). Please try to complete all readings before the day in which they will be discussed.
Stephen P. Cohen and others The Future of Pakistan Brookings Institution Press, 2011
Seth G. Jones In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan W.W. Norton, 2009
Riaz Mohammad Khan Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism, and Resistance to Modernity Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011
Syed Saleem Shahzad Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Requirements
Participation/attendance (15%) Full attendance and active participation are not simply a requirement, but a given for this class. Our collaborative effort will succeed only if each of you is fully engaged, has completed all of the assigned reading material before each class meeting, and offers your questions, ideas, inspirations, and critical reflections energetically.
Reflection Briefs (30%) Each week you will prepare a brief written response (2-3 pages) to the week’s readings; the reflection brief for the first week is due on Thursday June 28, and the next two reflection briefs are due July 3 and July 10. In these essays you will offer your reactions to the topics, issues, and/or perspectives presented in each week’s selections. You need not write about every reading assigned for that week, just what strikes you as something you want to consider further. The essays should not be ‘book reports’ – simple summaries of the readings - but instead should identify and explore content that strikes you as worthy of discussion in class. Since these assignments are really designed as a way to help you process your weekly readings, grading of these briefs will consist of a simple check system – check plus, check, check minus based on your level of engagement with the materials. The average total of these checks will inform your grade for this section.
Discussion Leadership (20%) Each week several of you will serve as Discussion Leaders. This role is very important to the success of each class period. Discussion Leaders will play an active role in guiding the conversations we engage in each time we meet. Discussion Leaders will rely on their Reflection Brief written for that segment; these ‘talking points’ will help discussion leaders facilitate their assigned class discussions. Evaluation of your performance in this context will be based on the utility of your “talking points” and your facilitation of the discussion. We will sign up for class discussions to facilitate on the first day of class.
Identifying Problems and Solutions (35%) This is a three-pronged assignment. The schedule identified here may need to be adjusted based on the number of course participants: (1) identify one critical problem in either Pakistan or Afghanistan, explain why you consider this remains a critical problem in the country and submit this (one-page format) to Professor Weiss on Thursday July 5; (2) In a 6-8 page written report, based mostly on course readings as well as some additional research, analyze the problem you have identified more deeply, due in class on Tuesday July 17; and (3) In a 10-15 minute oral presentation in class, either on July 17 or 19, brainstorm on (realistic) ways you think this one, single problem could be resolved, and the implications that resolving this problem would have on the region. While there will likely be duplication in identifying problems, I look forward to hearing creative, innovative -- yet realistic -- solutions offered from the seminar participants.
Link to course syllabus/weekly readings will be here
For further reading:
Stephen P. Cohen The Idea of Pakistan Brookings Institution Press, 2004
Steve Coll Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 Penguin 2004
C. Christine Fair et. al. Pakistan: Can the United States Secure an Insecure State? Rand, 2010
Imtiaz Gul The Most Dangerous Place: Pakistan's Lawless Frontier Viking 2010
Husain Haqqani Pakistan: Between Mosque and Military Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005.
Shuja Nawaz Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army, and the Wars Within Oxford University Press, 2008
Ahmed Rashid Descent into Chaos: the United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia Viking 2008
Ahmed Rashid Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia Yale University Press, 2000
Ian Talbot Pakistan: A Modern History St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Weiss, Anita M. "A Provincial Islamist Victory in Pakistan: the Social Reform Agenda of the Mauttahida Majlis-i-Amal" in John L. Esposito, John O. Voll and Osman Bakar (eds.) Asian Islam in the 21st Century Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 145-173.