Failure to Understand Military Intervention in Pakistan

• Author: Ejaz Hussain
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X17720941
• Date: 01 April 2018
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Subject Matter: Disputatio Sine Fine

Disputatio Sine Fine

Failure to Understand

Military Intervention in

Pakistan: A Rejoinder

Ejaz Hussain

1

Abstract

In 2014, Armed Forces & Society published Ali’s work, “Contradiction of Concordance

Theory: Failure to Understand Military intervention in Pakistan.” Shortly thereafter

in 2015, Schiff, the author of concordance theory, defended her theory with

“Concordance Theory in Pakistan: Response to Zulfiqar Ali.” To this, Ali reiterated

his position with, “Pakistan, Military Coup and Concordance: Four Objections to

Schiff.” In response to Ali’s ideas, this article argues that Ali’s accounts not only lack

theoretical and methodological rigor but also suffer from empirical fallacies and

factual errors. Thus, he has failed to understand military intervention in Pakistan.

Keywords

civil–military relations, concordance, military intervention, Pakistan

Ali’s (2014) “Contradiction of Concordance Theory: Failure to Understand Military

Intervention in Pakistan” was supposedly a challenge to Schiff’s (2009) concordance

theory with reference to Pakistan. Ali’s accounts (2014, 2016), paradoxically, suffer

from ontological and empirical contradictions and shortcomings which are presented

as four objections in the following.

1

Department of Social Sciences, Iqra University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Corresponding Author:

Ejaz Hussain, Institute of International Studies, 213 Moses Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

E-mails: ejaz.hussain@berkeley.edu; ejaz.hussain@iqraisb.edu.pk

Armed Forces & Society

2018, Vol. 44(2) 368-378

ªThe Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X17720941

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