The Myth of Decolonization and the Global south
By
Ahmed W. Waheed (2025)
Many scholars of International Relations have lately begun asking, how do we decolonize knowledge? Their contestations encompass questions of history, epistemology, ontology and methodology, and they have drawn attention to a range of epistemic inequalities rising from Eurocentric distortions and invisibilities in the discipline. Although the current trends in decolonizing IR may serve as the initial stage towards unveiling deep-rooted power structures, there has been a lack of systematic empirical investigation into the perpetuation and manifestation of these imbalances within the countries of the Global South. The book explores the coloniality of power and knowledge in Pakistan through an examination of Pakistani International Relations. It not only unveils the hegemonic processes embedded within the western capitalist structures of knowledge production but also explores how the eurocentrism of International Relations in Pakistan is sustained and maintained through a coloniality of knowledge and power which is designed to promote western epistemologies and emulate western standards. The book, consequently, provides a view of epistemic oppression from below. In doing so, it is an initial attempt to explore how the process of decolonization can begin to address the issues embedded in the coloniality of knowledge demonstrated through an exploration of the International Relations discipline in Pakistan.
Constructing ‘Pakistan’ through Knowledge Production
In International Relations and Area Studies
By
Ahmed W. Waheed (2020)
This book analyses the discourse on Pakistan by exploring the knowledge production processes through which the International Relations community, South Asian area study centres, and think-tanks construct Pakistan’s identity. This book does not attempt to trace how Pakistan has been historically defined, explained, or understood by the International Relations interpretive communities or to supplant these understandings with the author’s version of what Pakistan is. Instead, this study focuses on investigating how the identity of Pakistan is fixed or stabilized via practices of the interpretive communities. In other words, this book attempts to address the following questions: How is the knowledge on Pakistan produced discursively? How is this knowledge represented in the writings on Pakistan? What are the conditions under which it is possible to make authoritative claims about Pakistan?
The Wrong Ally
Pakistan’s State Sovereignty Under US Dependence
By
Ahmed W. Waheed (2018)
The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US, both during the Cold War era and the War on Terror. This examination becomes all the more important considering that recent contentious issues between Pakistan and the US, such as the US drone strikes, the Kerry–Lugar Bill and the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, have impacted on Pakistan’s staunch defence of its state sovereignty. The book explores this state sovereignty from three different but interwoven vantage points. Firstly, it observes US–Pakistan relations within the patron–client framework and examines the contours of Pakistan’s dependence and the vagaries of US patronal influence. Secondly, it analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in light of changing discourse on the theme. Lastly, it examines Pakistan’s state sovereignty within the purview of its fragile state status. While various contributions have provided insight on how the international community has come to view Pakistan’s state fragility, this book attempts a detailed understanding of how the Pakistani state interprets its reputation as an ostensible fragile state.
Terrorism and the US Drone Attacks in Pakistan
Killing First
By
IMDAD ULLAH (2021)
The Wrong Ally analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in the context of state dependence on the US, both during the Cold War era and the War on Terror. This examination becomes all the more important considering that recent contentious issues between Pakistan and the US, such as the US drone strikes, the Kerry–Lugar Bill and the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, have impacted on Pakistan’s staunch defence of its state sovereignty. The book explores this state sovereignty from three different but interwoven vantage points. Firstly, it observes US–Pakistan relations within the patron–client framework and examines the contours of Pakistan’s dependence and the vagaries of US patronal influence. Secondly, it analyses Pakistan’s state sovereignty in light of changing discourse on the theme. Lastly, it examines Pakistan’s state sovereignty within the purview of its fragile state status. While various contributions have provided insight on how the international community has come to view Pakistan’s state fragility, this book attempts a detailed understanding of how the Pakistani state interprets its reputation as an ostensible fragile state.
