The socially constructed security dilemma between India and Pakistan : an exploration of norms for a security community
Pervez, M.S.
Citation
Pervez, M. S. (2010, December 20). The socially constructed security dilemma between India and Pakistan : an exploration of norms for a security community. Retrieved from
https://hdl.handle.net/1887/16261
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License: Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden
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Stellingen (propositions
)1. The socio-cultural norms of a state influence the discourse of a state’s identity by formulating the security practices of elites.
2. Traditional International Relations theory namely realism and liberalism cannot fully grasp the extant of politics of highly emotional societies like India and Pakistan.
3. Elites’ social practices in India and Pakistan formulate their intersubjective security relations which are in stark contrast to the social practices of the masses of both states.
4. The security dilemma between India and Pakistan has been established through negative norms constructed by elites’ social practices while positive norms for a security community can be gauged through popular social practices.
5. Every regional security community is a context bounded construct with a normative hidden structure based on regional socio-cultural norms and its replication in other parts of the world is a mere delusion.
6. People to people contact is the only way forward for an India-Pakistan security community as the shackles of religious myths and cultural symbolism are too strong for the elites to break up.
7. Paraphrasing Avruch, the ‘best conflict managers’ should be well versed with regional and local cultural insights otherwise every formula devised for conflict resolution will be lost.
8. Slightly adapting Wendt’s famous dictum, anarchy is what states’ elites make of it.
9. Interdisciplinary research, especially between psychology, anthropology and international relations, helps us to understand the role of elites in explaining state behaviour.
10. Politics in the third world can best be understood by studying the cultural accounts of domestic societies.
11. Adversity and challenge brings either the best or the worst in a person.
12. The road to success is a roller coaster ride and the unflinching support of the better half is of prime value.
