Summary of the impact

Professor Iftikhar Malik's research on the cultural and political history of South Asia has informed public discourse in the UK, and has been particularly influential in informing British and EU policy and practice in Pakistan. This has resulted from Malik's involvement in the briefing of British diplomats and the training of EU officials, including election monitors for Pakistan, 2007-13.

Underpinning research

Iftikhar Malik's desire to raise public awareness and dispel misconceptions about Pakistan and the wider Muslim world runs through the extensive corpus of his books, articles, essays, reviews and think-pieces. His research, which has focused around studies of state and civil society in Pakistan, and the intricate relationship between Islam, nationalism and the West, is best exemplified through several significant monographs, all researched and published while employed by Bath Spa University, initially as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in History in 1995 and, after 2005, as Professor:

• State and Civil Society in Pakistan: Politics of Authority, Ideology and Ethnicity (Macmillan, 1997)
• Jihad, Hindutva and the Taliban: South Asia at the Crossroads (OUP, 2005) 25cf Crescent Between Cross and Star: Muslims and the West after 9/11 (OUP Pakistan, 2006)
• Culture and Customs of Pakistan (Greenwood, 2005)
• Pakistan: Democracy, Terrorism, and the Building of a Nation (New Holland, 2010).

In State and Civil Society in Pakistan: Politics of Authority, Ideology and Ethnicity, Malik takes on the daunting task of explaining the state and society of Pakistan through a study of the operation of the `triangle of authority, ideology, and ethnicity', thus providing a theoretical and historical framework for understanding Pakistan's complicated political and cultural history. The volume offers the first definition of civil society in a Pakistani context and explores issues around national integration, ethnicity and gender, suggesting that Pakistan's dilemmas are due to the disequilibrium between an authoritarian state and a polarized and ineffectual civil society.

The impact of 9/11 and its aftermath was particularly felt among scholars of South Asian and Muslim history. Professor Malik responded to the intensity of the period with a rich and varied series of articles and books that explored both the resultant global situation and the misconceptions about Islam that it engendered. Two of these, Jihad, Hindutva and the Taliban: South Asia at the Crossroads (OUP, 2005) and Crescent Between Cross and Star: Muslims and the West after 9/11 (OUP Pakistan, 2006) featured strongly in RAE08. In Jihad, Hindutva and the Taliban, Malik explored the challenges to pluralism in South Asia through an examination of the three key forces at work: jihad, Hindutva and the Taliban. He contextualised the rise of jihad and the Taliban in light of wider ethno-nationalisms in South Asia and the universality of reactionary religio-political thinking in the Middle East. Concerns about popular misconceptions and general lack of knowledge about Pakistani history and society among the western public resulted in Malik's successful cross-over text, Culture and Customs of Pakistan (2005). Taken together, these three books served, among other things, as a catalyst for invitations to brief British diplomats and personnel who were going to work in Pakistan, and to train EU election monitors.

In Pakistan: Democracy, Terrorism, and the Building of a Nation (2010), Professor Malik focused once again on the troubled history of Pakistan in the light of its current difficulties. In a purposefully accessible text, he examined the difficulties facing the new country after 1947 as it struggled to cope with contending national visions, the complications of Islamic politics, and tensions due to regional or ethnic identities. As Robert Nichols remarked, the result is `a valuable guide to a national history of recurring periods marked by struggling democratic institutions and military interventionism, both simultaneously challenged and often informed by internal Islamist advocacy, and always in the context of unsettled foreign affairs.' [http://www.h- net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32452] This commitment to accessible research has presented Prof. Malik with media appearance opportunities that have greatly influenced the public discourse on Pakistan.

References to the research

Details of the impact

Context

Professor Malik is in demand from public-interest groups, the media, diplomats, and British and European policy-makers, both as a commentator and as an expert, adviser and trainer. His significance and the reach of his impact is reflected in the diversity of his activities, which extend from media appearances and public and specialist lectures, through to serving as a subject expert on asylum cases for the United Kingdom Border Authority (2012) and training western diplomats, officials and election monitors to work in South Asia and Pakistan. As such, Professor Malik's work has impacted on the UK's public discourse on Pakistan, and has shaped diplomatic-level policy on Pakistan in the UK and across Europe.

Impact on the UK's public discourse on Pakistan

Professor Malik's carefully balanced, historically grounded insights and expertise on political Islam and Pakistan made him an internationally recognized academic expert before 9/11, but demand for his services as an expert commentator and opinion-former grew exponentially thereafter. Post-9/11 he gave 485 radio, media and community interviews/engagements that were precipitated by the attack on the Twin Towers and the subsequent developments in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan (2001-8). Since RAE08, he has made more than 300 media appearances, giving interviews for, among others, BBC local radio (e.g., Wiltshire, Oxfordshire), BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service (Urdu and Hindi), BBC World TV, BBC News 24, Aljazeera TV and Radio Pakistan. His ability to work in multiple languages, such as the two interviews in Urdu on the state of Minorities in Pakistan, filmed for www.alislam.org in 2011 and uploaded to YouTube, extend his reach beyond the Anglophone world. Modern media culture and the global news channels in particular depend upon the contributions of experts such as Professor Malik. Scholars such as Malik provide the `substance', the knowledge and the informed opinion, which shapes the thinking of programme-makers and interviewers, and makes the programmes themselves possible. Their research also serves to frame the debates and issues, thus influencing societal assumptions and informing wider public discourse.

Impact on Pakistan-related policy

In 2012, Professor Malik was invited by the European Institute for Public Affairs (EIPA) to present two papers in Brussels, on Afghanistan and Pakistan respectively to a select group of 28 EU policy-makers and diplomats and officials. As some of those present had already served in the area and others were preparing to be posted to Southwest Asia, Professor Malik's contributions sparked informed discussion on issues around current policies and their implementation.

He was also subsequently invited by the British Embassy in Berlin to participate in the second annual UK-Germany seminar on Pakistan (3 May 2013). These `consultations will give senior British and German officials and non-government participants the chance to look ahead to the Pakistani parliamentary elections, and to assess what Pakistan's foreign policy choices mean for the UK, Germany and the region.' (Simon Macdonald, British Ambassador, Berlin)

Impact on diplomatic training for posting to Pakistan

Professor Malik's invitation to provide specialized briefing sessions at the Farnham Centre for International Briefing for British diplomats and officials/trainers prior to postings to Pakistan was a direct result of his media presence and extensive publication record, particularly Culture and Customs of Pakistan (2005). Over the course of this census period he has conducted eight such briefings.

His connection with the EU, which has seen him undertake numerous training appointments since 2007, resulted from a contact made when speaking at the Annual Conference of Sociology and Anthropology, York University, Toronto, 30 May-2 June 2006. Recruited by the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, at the University of Pisa, a prestigious school of international relations which has been selected by the EU to train EU personnel, including election monitors, Malik gave training sessions on the history, politics, cultures and economy of Pakistan to c.100 election monitors from EU and OECD countries in both 2007 and 2008. In 2009 he was invited back to Pisa, this time to train c.60 EU personnel (doctors, nurses, firefighters, first-aid officials, earthquake rescue teams, etc.) to work across the Muslim countries in natural emergencies and disasters.

In 2013, with elections in Pakistan looming, Malik was once again approached by the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna and asked to organize three training workshops in Brussels (27 March; 8, 30 April). At these workshops Malik trained c.100 EU election monitors (representing all EU nations and various other countries, such as Canada). The feedback from these sessions rated Malik's training highly, at 8.3-8.50/10; moreover, he was praised specifically for his `huge knowledge' and his personal understanding of Pakistani customs and culture. As one anonymous attendee commented, Malik's sessions provided, `Broad sweeping coverage like a Tsunami wave of information.'

Sources to corroborate the impact

Statements from individuals, available from the University:

1) Statements from: Professor of Public International Law, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna at the University of Pisa, 8 Jan., 18 Feb. 2013; Feedback, Pakistan EU EOM LTO's. Corroboration of impact of EU election monitor training.

2) Statements from: The Ambassador, British Embassy, Berlin, 22 Apr. 2013. Impact on foreign policy.

Reviews and interviews available online:

3) Review of MALIC, I. State and Civil Society in Pakistan: Politics of Authority, Ideology and Ethnicity (Macmillan, 1997) Ayesha Jalal, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Feb., 1999), pp. 238-2: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2658459.
`...there can be no challenging his thesis that Pakistan's dilemmas are due to the disequilibrium between an authoritarian state and a polarized and ineffectual civil society. His observation that successive ruling configurations in conjunction with dominant social groups have worked to denude civil society of all initiative is undeniable':

4) Review of MALIC, I. Jihad, Hindutva and the Taliban: South Asia at the Crossroads (OUP, 2005) Ian Talbot, Political Studies Review, 4 (2007): http://www.politicalreviewnet.com/polrev/reviews/PSR/R_1478_9299_1866_1006828.asp
`... this is a study which deals with crucial issues not only for South Asia, but for the wider world. The opening years of the twenty-first century have revealed the dangers of majoritarianism in a variety of political settings. The greater celebration of pluralism which Iftikhar Malik calls for along with the strengthening of civil society is a matter of profound significance.'

5) Review of MALIC, I. Culture and Customs of Pakistan (2005) Jain, B.M. (2008). Culture and Customs of Pakistan. Journal of Third World Studies, 25, 278-280
`eminently refreshing and enlightening. It will interest both the general and intellectual readership ... recommended as an essential reading for students studying South Asian history, society and culture.'

6) Review of MALIC, I. Pakistan: Democracy, Terrorism, and the Building of a Nation (2010). Robert Nichols, H-Asia (April 2011): http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=32452
`Those looking for some insight into the latest political events and violence in Pakistan will find it here. No simple optimist, the author is fully aware of the challenges ahead. Still, his last sentence reflects a vision past immediate crises to a time when maturing national interests might recognize that "Democracy, dialogue and distributive justice are the keys to a bright future for Pakistan".'

7) Review of MALIC, I. Pakistan: Democracy, Terrorism, and the Building of a Nation (2010). `Prominent author and professor Malik takes an in-depth look at the history and development of a country often at war, shrouded in distrust and uncertainty, and struggling to maintain its status as a nuclear power. [...]Malik's impressive knowledge of the region makes this most complicated of countries easy to grasp.' Publishers Weekly

8) A pair of interviews in Urdu, `Guftugu [A conversation] with Dr Iftikhar Malik', Bath Spa University on the state of Minorities in Pakistan, filmed for http://www.alislam.org/. (Dec. 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JFQ16wsdcc (748 views) [28-10-13] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH7WhoUrN18 (442 views) [28-10-13].