The Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) has released two new documents on contemporary issues; one publication titled ‘State in Turmoil’ is a compendium of five reports all of which primarily deal with security and governance issues of Pakistan in the year of 2012. The first report The Deadly Drone Campaign: Setting Dangerous Precedent: A Pakistani Perspective gives an overview of the drone strikes in Pakistan tribal areas, which have entailed implications not only for local populations and Pakistanis at large but also raise security and legal questions for the broader international community. The report argues that the use of the predators to hunt down al-Qaeda linked non-state actors– sets a dangerous precedent for future as more and more states are likely to adopt these means and methods in others– territories in the name of ‘national security’. This could have dangerous consequences for international peace.
The report Karachi: The State of Crimes, covers Karachi security situation from ethnic, political, criminal and militant perspectives. This report analyzes different aspects of all these crimes also highlights the discrepancies of the data maintenance and carries out comparative study of similar data from different locations to determine the areas that are dangerous in terms of crime rate. It is hoped that this analysis would be valuable for all those interested in understanding dynamics of violence in Karachi.
The third report Pakistan Security 2012, like similar reports for the preceding years, provides an overall picture of violence and terrorism in Pakistan during the year of 2012.
The fourth report Pakistan’s Balochistan Province under Siege covers the relentlessly raging insurgency in Balochistan which is compounded by abysmal governance and extremely indifferent civilian and military ruling elite. It explains the linkages between politics, crime and militancy besides highlighting the salient features of the political landscape in Balochistan.
The fifth report Changing Perceptions: The Evolution of Media in KP and FATA analyses the impact of media discourse on public opinions in KP and FATA. It is based on the content analysis of selected CRSS counter-radicalization radio programs in KPK/FATA regions, and tries to establish that such an advocacy does impact public perceptions and helps in correcting their cliched views.
For details go to the report.