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FOUR DECADES AND FOUR DICTATORS LATER, PAKISTAN'S STABILITY, AS WELL AS THE SURVIVAL OF ITS LATEST MILITARY RULER, HAVE BECOME CONTINGENT ON US SUPPORT

A leading Pakistani nuclear physicist explores Islam's disengagement from science & knowledge creation. Topics include the role of the ulema & Islamism in impeding innovation, the power of the mullahs, the Islamist-science relationship, the mindset of South Asian scientists, the ongoing battle against South Asian irrationality despite the development of nuclear weapons, the need for educational reform, the need to separate science from religion, religious education's bias against science, madrasa reform efforts, problems with the quality of Muslim scholarly publications, & the clash between moderate & literalist Islam & the role of the Taliban. Adapted from the source document.

In the four decades since Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons program, and especially in the fifteen years since the nuclear tests of 1998, a way of thinking and a related set of feelings about the bomb have taken hold among policy-makers and the public in Pakistan. These include the ideas that the bomb can ensure Pakistan's security; resolve the long-standing dispute with India over Kashmir in Pakistan's favour; help create a new national spirit; establish Pakistan as a leader among Islamic countries; and usher in a new stage in Pakistan's economic development. None of these hopes has come to pass, and in many ways Pakistan is much worse off than before it went nuclear. Yet the feelings about the bomb remain strong and it is these feelings that will have to be examined critically and be set aside if Pakistan is to move towards nuclear restraint and nuclear disarmament. This will require a measure of stability in a country beset by multiple insurgencies, the emergence of a peace movement able to launch a national debate on foreign policy and nuclear weapons, and greater international concern regarding the outcomes of nuclear arms racing in South Asia. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)