CISS conducted a round-table with Mr. Tyler Jost on National Security Decision-Making in a Comparative Context: China, India and Pakistan, which is the subject of his thesis research on Tuesday, the 12th of December, 2017. Mr. Jost is a PhD candidate in the Department of Government at Harvard University and visiting fellow at the Center for International Strategic Studies.
Mr. Jost provided a framework to study the patterns of national-security decision-making of states. He identified four categories of national security decision-making institutions. He termed them strong-fragmented, strong-integrated, weak-fragmented and weak-integrated.
The institutions that are involved in the national security-related decision-making process differ from country to country as well as from time to time. These institutions may comprise key military, diplomatic and intelligence stakeholders, with one gaining predominance over the others at a given time or in a particular era.
Mr. Jost argued that most countries fit into one of the four categories. His research was conducted in four countries, i.e. China, Taiwan, Pakistan and India, but discussed how the framework applies in only China, Pakistan and India over the course of their history.
A Q&A session ensued at the end of Mr. Jost’s presentation, which led to a stimulating discussion.
Ali Sarwar Naqvi is Executive Director at the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad.
