Professor T.V. Paul visited Georgia Tech on February 27, 2014 to present his new book, The Warrior State: Pakistan in the Contemporary World (Oxford University Press - 2014).  This featured discussion of the strategic and developmental implications of Pakistan’s “geostrategic curse.”   The event, hosted by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP), was generously sponsored by the General Ray Davis Endowment.

Paul argued that Pakistan’s geographic position at the crossroads of India, China, Afghanistan, and the former Soviet Union situates the South Asian republic in the cross-hairs of the strategic calculations of great power states. This has burdened Pakistan with what Paul terms the “geostrategic curse.” Similar to the oft-cited “resource curse,” where the rents collected from an easily extracted commodity like oil leave political elites with little incentive to pursue economic and societal development, the geostrategic curse has allowed Pakistan to prop itself up with the significant foreign aid it collects from security partners, such as the United States.  It does this at the expense of investment in nation building. The geostrategic curse has also granted Pakistan’s military a heavy hand in running the country, creating a situation where opportunities for social reform and economic growth are subordinated to the narrow pursuit of national security goals. According to Paul, this is the taproot of Pakistan’s chronic instability, endemic violence, and stunted development. 

Paul concluded by recommending that Pakistan follow the lead of historically comparable states, such as South Korea and Turkey, and place economic development goals at the heart of its quest for national stability and security.  

Dr. T.V. Paul is the James McGill Professor of International Relations at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Dr. Paul specializes in international security, regional security, and South Asia. He has authored or edited fifteen books and more than fifty journal articles and book chapters.