Peace, Conflict and Education: An Analysis of Security Framework of Pakistan

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of peace and conflict and its multifaceted relationship with education in context of Pakistan. The research work is a qualitative content analysis of Pakistan’s security policies, with a specific focus on the questions of how official policies understand the causes of the conflict, what peacebuilding measures are suggested and how is education situated with reference to these critical issues. The research is guided by the theoretical framework of 4Rs (Novelli; 2017, 2019) , which focuses on the structural drivers of the conflict and emphasizes representation, redistribution, recognition, and reconciliation as key aspects of peacebuilding. The study reveals that although the policy documents deal extensively with the said issues, however, there has been little theoretical engagement to yield any significant insights into the causes of the conflict and peacebuilding strategies. Study also highlights the lack of engagement with the literature in the field, which gives a security framework a look of a collection of essays rather than systematic effort to produce organized knowledge. The research suggests that a more theoretically informed and historically conscious approach to understand the complex phenomenon of conflict and peacebuilding is required to address the root causes of the conflict and achieve sustainable peace in Pakistan