| ID | 159378 |
| Title Proper | Beyond the double game |
| Other Title Information | lessons from Pakistan’s approach to Islamist militancy |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Tankel, Stephen |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | States commonly take one of three approaches to militant groups on their soil: collaboration; benign neglect; or belligerence. All three approaches are present in Pakistan, where some groups also move back and forth among these categories. I employ the term “coopetition” to capture this fluidity. The dynamic nature of militancy in Pakistan makes the country an excellent laboratory for exploring a state’s assessment of the utility an Islamist militant group offers, and the threat it poses relative to other threats informs the state’s treatment of that group. In this article, I put forward a typology that situates Islamist militants in Pakistan in one of the above four categories. I also illustrate how a group’s identity, objectives, and alliances inform assessments of its utility and threat relative to other threats. In addition to enhancing our understanding of militant–state dynamics, this taxonomy builds on and helps to unify earlier typologies of Pakistani militancy. |
| `In' analytical Note | Journal of Strategic Studies Vol. 41, No.4; Jun 2018: p.545-575 |
| Journal Source | Journal of Strategic Studies Vol: 41 No 4 |
| Key Words | Terrorism ; Taliban ; Afghanistan ; India ; Pakistan ; Lashkar-e-Taiba ; Typology ; Pakistani Taliban ; Haqqani Network |