Statecraft and Public Policy

MPP-1001

Lecture. 3
Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft
Culture Policy

Dr Kalsoom Sumra
kalsoomsumra@gmail.com
 Beyond Power Politics
• Nuclear deterrence a major watershed in the relations of
nation
• Composition of conflict itself is changing
• Clashes of communal identity, on the basis of race,
ethnicity, nationality or religion.
• Classical tools of diplomacy negotiations
• Non-material identity based conflicts need to
understand emotional stakes of the parties
• Individuals operating on spiritual and religious basis are
neglected in international relations
• Movement for sociopolitical change
 Religion or Spiritual Influences
• Disregarding the role of religion
• Lebonan,
• Vietnam,
• Sudan and west Irian (Indonesia),
• Iran
 Strong Religion, Weak States
• Increasing role of religious leaders, religious
institutions,.
• What makes religion political.
• Political importance of religion in third world
countries Africa, middle east and Asia.
• Religion, ethnicity, religion as form of indigenous
idea as markers of community identity as
compare to west
 Fundamentalism and International Relations
• All Muslims are not fundamentalists
• Heterogeneous religious populations greatly effect the
stability and foreign policy of many middle eastern
countries.
• Islamic fundamentalists poses major threat to Israel
Seven Dimensions of Religion
 STATE AND RELIGION
• Throughout history, states have had an uneasy relationship with
religion.
• The advantage of state control of religion is that the state can choose
the level of religious spending to suit its own objective.
• Three categories identified: the state runs, suppresses, or grants
independence to religion.
• The state as running religion if the country has one or multiple
established religions or if it has an unofficial civil religion under
state domination.
• If a country has no official religion and it is hostile or “insensitive”
toward religion, we consider the state as suppressing religion.
• Consider religion as being independent from the state even though
the state may support or cooperate with one or more religions, as
long as it does not run their operations.
 Continue….
• Involvement has varied by regions. State control was least
common in Africa, where about twenty percent of the countries
controlled religion, higher in East Asia and Pacific (33%), the
highest in South Asia (88%) and Near East and North Africa
(94%), and also significantly high in Europe and Eurasia (51%)
and the Western Hemisphere (55%).
• State control of religion has perhaps been the most common form
of relationship throughout history. In the ancient world, religious
institutions were typically subordinated and controlled by the state.
• The case of state suppression of religion has been a more recent
phenomenon (though state persecution of some religious sects,
notably Christianity in the Roman Empire prior to Constantine, has
occurred throughout history).
 The Political Economy of State and Religion

• Religion and state are perhaps the two most important social
institutions created by humankind.
• The idea that religion, through its teachings, can facilitate this
function of the state is an old one, dating at least to ancient
civilizations when the sovereign declared himself divine, or at
least divinely inspired.
• State religions undermine the overall religiosity of the population
in religiously pluralistic countries, and that religious freedom
protection increases religious attendance and spurs increases in
religious pluralism.
Faith, Reason and Statecraft In Contemporary Islam
• Faith has umpteen definitions. A common understanding
of faith employed loosely implies perseverance to pursue
an ideal.
• Critically reviewed character of statecraft broadly
corresponds with two variables, the type of governing
dispensation, and its temporal proximity or remoteness
from epoch of the Prophet (SAW)
• During the times of Malukiat , statecraft has been related
to political thought of the age, and therefore drew its
direction from it which grew phenomenally during
Umayyad, Abbasid, and Ottoman caliphates
Continue….
• The present presentational domain is not only plagued by intra-
Muslim polarization, but by non-Muslim world as well where
Islam is depicted as a religion of the sword with the blade forever
at the throat of the unbeliever.
• In the post 9/11 stereotypical representations of Muslims as a
community and Islam as a faith, a steep rise was witnessed in
psychosocial and political phenomenon as xenophobia in general
and Islamophobia in particular.
• It has also been asked whether Islam as a system of regulatory
beliefs is compatible with the modern world.
• Discussion on post-Islamism is yet in nascent stage. The budding
research needs to engage with questions whether we really require
a grand and unified theory and governance in times of
fragmentation heightened by impact of globalization,.
STATE AND STATE CRAFT: Relationship Between
Islamic and Western Paradigms
• The Islamic State is so threatening because of its
complete opposition to Western values.
• In the near future secularism seems to prevail all over the
world. World is going to be organized under a single
system. All outward religious activities are likely to be
banned.
 The Challenge of Strong Religion in the Liberal State
• States and religions are probably the two most powerful
forces that exist today, and the variety of religion-state
relations that exist around the globe is both a reflection
and an outgrowth of this fact.
• The nationalization of religion, which is prevalent in Muslim
majority countries, can take various forms.
• the authorization of religion implies that religion (often the state
religion) and its institutions have control over certain aspects of
governance, coupled with considerable autonomy from state
intervention. Saudi Arabia is an example of a country where there
is a uniquely extensive authorization of religion.
 Pakistan as an Islamic State
• The concern today is how to reconcile the authoritarian
and coercive structures of religious authority present in
Pakistan with the country‟s stated allegiance to
democratic principles.
• With the rise of the new and unprecedented political
construct of the Islamic State (or Islamic Republic) in
the post colonial era, questions about the role of Sharia
in this new political reality and how and who is to
determine it have become more important.
 Islamic Fundamentalism and Youth

• Islamic fundamentalism in the modern political context

can be described as an attempt to attain an „Islamic State‟
through political mobilisation, revolutionary action or
government legislation.
• There is also the view that the hold on campuses and
influence of old fundamentalist outfits may be
loosening. Unchecked HuT activities on various private
educational institutions have added a radical and
reactionary tendency to new urban youth groups.
 Pakistan between Mosque and Military
• Since Pakistan‟s independence in 1947, the disproportionate focus of
the state on ideology, military capability, and external alliances has
weakened Pakistan internally. The country‟s institutions—ranging
from schools and universities to the judiciary—are in a state of
general decline.
• Pakistan is far from developing a consistent system of government,
with persisting political polarization along three major, intersecting
fault lines: between civilians and the military, among various ethnic
and provincial groups, and between Islamists and secularists.
• The second fault line has its origin in ethnic and provincial
differences. Although the majority of Pakistan‟s ethnically disparate
population has traditionally identified with secular politicians, that
majority has not always determined the direction of Pakistan‟s
policies, even when expressed in a free and fair election.
 Continue…
• The third fault line is the ideological division over the
role of Islam in national life. Starting as a pressure
group outside Parliament, Pakistan‟s religious parties
have now become a well-armed and well-financed force
that wields considerable influence within different
branches of government.
• Radical Islamic groups, which portray themselves as the
guardians of Pakistan‟s ideology, have been granted
special status by the military-civil bureaucracy that
normally governs Pakistan.
Continue…..
• Both India and Bangladesh have evolved as secular democracies
focused on economic development, but Pakistan continues to be
ruled by a civil-military oligarchy that sees itself as defining and
also protecting the state‟s identity—mainly through a mix of
religious and militarist nationalism.
• Religious groups, both armed and unarmed, gradually grew in
power as a result of the alliance between the mosque and the
military. Radical and violent manifestations of Islamist ideology,
which sometimes appear to threaten Pakistan‟s stability even today,
can be interpreted as a state project gone awry.
Statecraft and Culture Policy
 Culture Definition
• Culture, according to literary critic Raymond Williams,
is one of the two or three most complicated words in the
English language (1977, 76).
• The Oxford English Dictionary first defines culture with
reference to tillage. Second, it is the cultivation and
refinement of the mind; “the artistic and intellectual side
of civilization”; finally, “the distinctive customs,
achievements, production, outlooks, etc, of a society or
group; the way of life of a society or group.” The latter
can be characterized as the “anthropological” sense of
culture.
 Statecraft and Culture Policy
• Cultural policy is integrated in general planning.
• The State considers that it has a responsibility for culture deriving from the role
it has undertaken towards the nation, and that it is the duty of the State to
replace private initiative which is not always capable of carrying out this task
successfully.
• One should beware of centralization and of a predominant role for the State in
the direct management of cultural institutions, because of the danger of cultural
action being reduced to uniformity and lest the controversial element in art be
neutralized; those who support this approach prefer to limit State intervention
to financial assistance, free from any conditions.
• In certain developing societies it is considered that cultural development is
essential in order to strengthen awareness of nationhood and thus facilitate the
growth of an original culture which will meet both the deepest aspirations of the
people and the requirements of the modern world; State intervention is essential,
since private action is still clearly inadequate.
• In any event, State intervention must not have a harmful effect on the freedom
to create and public passivity must be avoided
at any price.
 Public Culture as Public Policy
• A cultural policy encompasses a much broader array of activities
than what was traditionally associated with an arts policy.
• The latter typically involved public support for
1. museums,
2. the visual arts (painting, sculpture, and pottery),
3. the performing arts (symphonic, chamber and choral music;
jazz, modern dance, opera and musical theater, and “serious”
theater),
4. historic preservation, and humanities programs (such as
creative writing and poetry).
 Culture Policy of Pakistan
• The constitution also guarantees the protection of the right to
education of all ethnic groups (Article 22),
• the equality of all citizens
before the law and guards against gender imbalance and exploitat
ion of children (Article 25).
• It also contains elements of time-barred affirmative action
for marginalized and disadvantaged groups (Article 27).
• Finally, there is protection for groups and individuals with a
distinct language, script or culture(Article 28)
• and the discouragement of parochial, racial, tribal, sectarian and
provincial prejudices (Article 33).
Pakistani Culture in History

• Two million year old socio-political background going back to the

old Stone Age.
• Allama Iqbal on Culture
• Quaid-i-Azam on Culture
• Post Independence Culture
• Spiritual cultural aspects
• Intangible Cultural Heritage
• Tangible Cultural Heritage
 Role of the Federal Government
• All federal and provincial cultural institutions dealing with culture
in allits forms including music, dance, literature, architecture, film
And broadcasting should be autonomous bodies with public private
partnership.
• Ministry of Culture
• A National Cultural Database
• Information on library holdings
• National Archives and National Documentation Centre
• The federal Department of Archaeology
• Academy of Letters
• Pakistan Television Corporation and Pakistan Broadcasting
Corporation