The recent debates on Pakistan’s contemporary security challenges have started revolving around the newly coined term Hard State, describing the government’s decisive approach to address the menace of terrorism. The discussion on the conceptual explanations of Hard State emerged from the recent meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security held on March 18, 2025, in Islamabad. The meeting emphasized the rising threats of terrorism from inside Pakistan with the support of clandestine foreign involvement and their resolve to stigmatize the country’s national image in the world.
The quest to address the multifaceted issue of terrorism has led the government authorities to discuss the future of the nation strictly aligned with its broader counterterrorism efforts through taking effective policy measures. The issues of governance and security were discussed in the meeting to describe further the need to realize the country’s transformation into a Hard State where the Ulema, with their influential position in society, could play an effective role.
The Ulema’s role in denouncing the manipulated and inaccurate explanations of extremist religious beliefs and their emergence from the covertly functioning networking of different fanatical ideological groups offers hope
The Ulema’s role in denouncing the manipulated and inaccurate explanations of extremist religious beliefs and their emergence from the covertly functioning networking of different fanatical ideological groups offers hope for Pakistan’s social transformation. In this way, the country’s mainstream leadership agreed to develop a consensus on redefining and restructuring the ongoing formal counterterrorism approaches of Islamabad, which have started demanding government authorities the indispensable upgrades according to the altered nature of the international security landscape.
The international community from around the world has expressed their diverse viewpoints on the conceptual description of Hard State and its relevance with Pakistan’s fight against core national security challenges
The adopted phrase of Hard State refreshed the global intellectual debates concerning Pakistan’s mainstream security challenges and the high determination of the country’s leadership to overcome its adversaries through investing in national political, diplomatic, and strategic potentials for ensuring a countrywide scope of durable peace and stability. The international community from around the world has expressed their diverse viewpoints on the conceptual description of Hard State and its relevance with Pakistan’s fight against core national security challenges. The contemporary position of Islamabad-based political leadership on the concept of the Hard State can be aligned with Anatol Lieven’s famous study Pakistan: A Hard Country, published in 2011.
The government’s concentration on the external security issues, mainly originated from Indian opposition to Pakistan’s standing in regional and extra-regional affairs, and multiplied its challenges
The British professor Lieven provided in his book an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of Pakistan’s internal problems linked with its post-colonial social, political, and economic structures, which engaged its mainstream leadership in tackling different indigenous issues. While managing the multi-layered domestic problems, the government’s concentration on the external security issues, mainly originated from Indian opposition to Pakistan’s standing in regional and extra-regional affairs, and it multiplied its challenges. Lieven dubbed the combination of internal and external threats as the core national security challenges making the nation a Hard Country. The recent description of the Hard State, however, is aligned with Islamabad’s plans for launching robust responses to the newly emerged wave of terrorism in the country, highlighting the strategic aspect of the concept.
The prevalence of such ideas in Pakistan’s decades-long efforts to create a country free from leading security threats based on the multifaceted nature of terrorism shows Islamabad’s strong will to take rational policy initiatives
Both descriptions of Pakistan’s pursuit of overcoming its leading security problems underlined the issue of terrorism and its growing complexities from diverse directions. The analytical discussion on both concepts underlined the country’s political strengths and prospects for building a secure and brighter future for the nation by strengthening the fundamental conceptual values of national security. The prevalence of such ideas in Pakistan’s decades-long efforts to create a country free from leading security threats based on the multifaceted nature of terrorism shows Islamabad’s strong will to take rational policy initiatives. These initiatives further exhibit the current leadership’s pragmatic approach to deal with the menace of terrorism and its complicated pervasiveness within the country. While understanding the recent concept of the Hard State, further explanations of the state’s formal government officials, leading decision-making authorities, mainstream political leadership, and prominent strategic thinkers will define the integration of the Hard State concept with the country’s conventional national security framework. The application of the envisioned security framework in the targeted areas will prove the government’s conclusive way of rooting out the deep penetration of ideologically-driven fanatical ideological thoughts in the society and their unprecedented growth under the ongoing country’s digital culture.
The growing nation’s reliance on modern technologies and the high rate of digital illiteracy in society have pushed the country towards a post-truth era, where a brief layer of several disinformation campaigns have encircled the entire nation
It is pertinent to mention here the overwhelming effects of modern communication technologies on Pakistani society and the high rate of the country’s digital illiteracy, which has given rise to the unregulated countrywide spread of digital culture. The actual threats emerged from the country’s widespread digital culture under the government’s vision of national transformation with the support of advanced communication technologies aligning with the contemporary digital adaptation of the international system. Thus, the growing nation’s reliance on modern technologies and the high rate of digital illiteracy in society have pushed the country towards a post-truth era, where a brief layer of several disinformation campaigns have encircled the entire nation.
The increasing societal appreciation of various social media platforms has led the multi-layered disinformation campaigns to penetrate society with several manipulated facts and inaccurate sets of information concerning sensitive issues
So, the increasing societal appreciation of various social media platforms has led the multi-layered disinformation campaigns to penetrate society with several manipulated facts and inaccurate sets of information concerning sensitive issues. It has caused the rise of various anti-state public sentiments cemented in fabricated narratives aiming to destabilize the core values of national integrity and social cohesion in Pakistan. Therefore, the present approaches to managing internal security threats under the concept of Hard State require further alterations, underlining the adaptability of the concept, associated with the country’s present digital culture.
The Hard State securitization, mainly focusing on the conventional societal configurations, could provide the desired outcome to the government authorities. In this way, the government’s concentration on countering the digital malpractices of society could be included in the newly coined idea of a Hard State with rational operationalization of the country’s present digital culture. It will enable the proponents of Hard State to achieve the desired results from the newly adopted country’s security framework with certain decisive moves.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.
