Najam Publishes Article on Global Forces Shaping Pakistan’s Future

Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent article exploring the global forces shaping Pakistan’s future including the new world disorder, democracy redefined, regional tumult and digital dilemmas. 

Najam’s article, entitled “Seven Global Forces Shaping Pakistan’s Future,” was published in The Herald on January 28, 2019.

From the text of the article:

The most fundamental point that needs to be made right at the outset is this: Pakistan’s future will be determined – as has always been the case and for all nations – by the decisions that Pakistan and Pakistanis will make. Everything else is context. Having said that, the rest of this essay is an enquiry into the global context in which these decisions might have to be made in the coming year and beyond.

The dazzling pace of political events and the bewildering intensity of political opinion and analysis in Pakistani print, electronic and social media can leave anyone short of breath. It also makes our analysis rather temporal. Most importantly, the ‘in the moment’ nature of discourse can divert attention from the longer-term global forces that form the context of at least some of our own political drama.

This essay seeks to identify seven key global forces that are likely to be of consequence to politics and society all across the world, especially in Pakistan. First, however, an important distinction needs to be highlighted: this is not a list of the key challenges (or opportunities) that Pakistan will confront; it is, instead, a selection of the most significant global trends that are likely to define the context in which Pakistan will have to operate.

Read the full article here.

Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School and was a former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore Pakistan. Learn more about him here.

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