Pakistan, Pan-Islamism, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This article on Pakistan, Pan-Islamism and the OIC, should be revised before publication.
The greatest weakness of the article is that it does not elaborate on a research question, rendering it mostly descriptive. The article analyses Pakistan’s policy towards the OIC and to what extent it has succeeded in advancing its national interests. The article argues that pan-Islamism was advanced not merely for ideological reasons but also for other political gains. What does the reader gain from this analysis? Why is the OIC significant? Why should the reader care. A research question especially a why question begets aa response that solves a problematic. I am not sure what the problematic is in this paper.
Second, why is it important to write an article about the OIC and such a specific aspect of Pakistan’s foreign policy. In the larger scheme of things how is Pakistan’s policy towards the PIC relevant or important for us to consider?
Third, has Pakistan’s policy towards the OIC been successful? Ultimately what has Pakistan achieved by pursuing this agenda?
On page 5 of 16, reading how Islam has shaped state and nation-building, I was surprised that when thinking about Islam’s impact on foreign policy, Pakistan’s lack of diplomatic relationship with Israel was not mentioned.
On page 8 of 16, paragraph 2 on Saudi and Iran tensions, I wonder the impact of Pakistan’s OIC policy to be a uniting power on its domestic sectarian politics between Shia and Sunni populations. Given that sectarianism in Pakistan has been quite violent, I wonder if Pakistan can justifiably see itself as a unifying power.
Author Response
Reviewer 1: The greatest weakness of the article is that it does not elaborate on a research question, rendering it mostly descriptive. The article analyses Pakistan’s policy towards the OIC and to what extent it has succeeded in advancing its national interests. The article argues that pan-Islamism was advanced not merely for ideological reasons but also for other political gains. What does the reader gain from this analysis? Why is the OIC significant? Why should the reader care. A research question especially a why question begets aa response that solves a problematic. I am not sure what the problematic is in this paper.
Response: We have reframed our research question by emphasizing that we examine Pakistan’s policy towards the OIC.
Reviewer 1: Second, why is it important to write an article about the OIC and such a specific aspect of Pakistan’s foreign policy. In the larger scheme of things how is Pakistan’s policy towards the PIC relevant or important for us to consider?
Response: We have added an explanation of how studying this part of Pakistan’s foreign policy is crucial to understand the role of identity in the country’s foreign policy and relations with the Ummah.
Reviewer 1: Third, has Pakistan’s policy towards the OIC been successful? Ultimately what has Pakistan achieved by pursuing this agenda?
Response: We already argue in the paper about the degree to which Pakistan’s OIC policy has been successful as it has been able to forge close relations with other Muslim countries, especially oil-rich Arab monarchies that have been providing Pakistan with generous aid and investment.
Reviewer 1: On page 5 of 16, reading how Islam has shaped state and nation-building, I was surprised that when thinking about Islam’s impact on foreign policy, Pakistan’s lack of diplomatic relationship with Israel was not mentioned.
Response: We agree with this observation and have accordingly updated this later in the paper on p. 7.
Reviewer 1: On page 8 of 16, paragraph 2 on Saudi and Iran tensions, I wonder the impact of Pakistan’s OIC policy to be a uniting power on its domestic sectarian politics between Shia and Sunni populations. Given that sectarianism in Pakistan has been quite violent, I wonder if Pakistan can justifiably see itself as a unifying power.
Response: We have accordingly revised by adding a justification of why Pakistan has been claiming to be a mediator and why it couldn’t. These changes have been made on p. 13.
Reviewer 2 Report
Your article is clearly written and in a carefully structured narrative which ought to be engaging to readers interested in Islam, theories of international relations, and the history of the Pakistan/India conflict. Your conclusions are clear and evidence based. One minor reservation: just how important is "Constructivism" to your narrative? Generally, you give an explanation of institutions, persons, and events. I note one exception: the reference to Motamar Al Alam Al Islam (267). Please give some short explanation regarding such. The article is the product of authors who know about their subject and write confidently about it. I learned much of value from reading this essay.
Author Response
Reviewer 2: Your article is clearly written and in a carefully structured narrative which ought to be engaging to readers interested in Islam, theories of international relations, and the history of the Pakistan/India conflict. Your conclusions are clear and evidence based. One minor reservation: just how important is "Constructivism" to your narrative? Generally, you give an explanation of institutions, persons, and events. I note one exception: the reference to Motamar Al Alam Al Islam (267). Please give some short explanation regarding such. The article is the product of authors who know about their subject and write confidently about it. I learned much of value from reading this essay.
Response: We critically view constructivism in this paper. While focusing on policies and institutions, we have also examined domestic political actors. In addition, we have carried out fieldwork to include the views of opinion-makers from a variety of backgrounds. We also highlight the limitations of constructivism in our analysis on various places, such as on p. 3: As we argue in this paper, constructivism has some obvious relevance to post-independence Pakistan but appears to lose its explanatory powers as Pakistan grows to show more explicit awareness of its geo-political environment, security, and economic considerations in its foreign policy choices”. We have also added details of the Motamar Al Alam Al Islam.
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you very much for you paper. Few comments:
1- This paper has only two subtitles: 1-Introduction, 2-Conclusion. Why do you not consider other subtitles or subsections in this format?
2- At line 222 you have written "this paper focuses on ... (Reus-Smit 2005)". Do you refer to Reus-Smit paper or your paper?
3-I think the paper's data are too old. Most of the evidences are from 20th Century. There is a little of evidences from 2000s and 2010s.
4- At 1997, OIC did a Summit at Pakistan which was very important. At this gathering the case of Palestine and Iran-Saudi relations were discussed. The authors did not mentioned this event.
5- I think the Pakistan-China relations is also has impacts to Pakistan pan-Islamism policy because of Chinese Muslim minorities. It is not reflected in the paper.
6-Pakistan is member of another inter-Muslim states as Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). This is also relevant to pan-Islamism policy of Pakistan.
Best Regards.
Author Response
Reviewer 3: 1- This paper has only two subtitles: 1-Introduction, 2-Conclusion. Why do you not consider other subtitles or subsections in this format?
Response: We think the reviewer has overlooked many headings. There are in fact major other headings than just introduction and conclusion and several sub-headings in our analytical section.
Reviewer 3: 2- At line 222 you have written "this paper focuses on ... (Reus-Smit 2005)". Do you refer to Reus-Smit paper or your paper?
Response: Thanks for pointing out this error. We have removed the reference to Reus-Smit.
Reviewer 3: 3-I think the paper's data are too old. Most of the evidences are from 20th Century. There is a little of evidences from 2000s and 2010s.
Response: We have added many references to the data in recent years. As there was not much, we carried out fieldwork in Islamabad to bridge that gap by including the views of key local opinion makers, including former diplomats of Pakistan.
Reviewer 3: 4- At 1997, OIC did a Summit at Pakistan which was very important. At this gathering the case of Palestine and Iran-Saudi relations were discussed. The authors did not mentioned this event.
Response: Actually, at this first special summit of the OIC, Pakistan raised its concerns in relation to disputes with India. The Palestine issue was also discussed but Islamabad hosted the event to gain support for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. We have accordingly updated this in our paper.
Reviewer 3: 5- I think the Pakistan-China relations is also has impacts to Pakistan pan-Islamism policy because of Chinese Muslim minorities. It is not reflected in the paper.
Response: As the focus of this study is on the OIC, we do not feel that the issue of minority Muslims is relevant as Islamabad has never raised this matter at the OIC. Also, Islamabad has never even talked about his matter in bilateral exchanges with Beijing. This however does represent a problematic aspect of Pakistan’s pan-Islamism but we don’t feel that we can cover this topic in this paper.
Reviewer 3: 6-Pakistan is member of another inter-Muslim states as Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). This is also relevant to pan-Islamism policy of Pakistan.
Response: We have added our exclusion criteria in relation to the ECO in the introduction. It is because the ECO is limited to economic cooperation among its ten members and political issues are not discussed at this forum. The ECO has never issued any statement on political issues like Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
No suggestions.
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you for your changes comparing with the first version of paper.
