The changing geopolitical dynamics of world politics and their relevance to the great power politics has thrust Pakistan in the limelight in the contemporary international system. China’s economic rise under the One Belt One Road Initiative (OBOR) or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) introduced the idea of economic integration which is inherited in Beijing’s attention of actively participating in world politics. Pakistan, an immediate neighbour of China and a close friend of Beijing, announced helping in implementing China’s mega economic plans under BRI. In this way, the two governments agreed to connect China to the Arabian Sea through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The signing of CPEC has given rise a new debate in world politics in which Pakistan has become a gravitational point of Beijing’s gigantic plan of controlling the international politics through an intense network of ports and roads. Islamabad’s decision of upholding China in its mega economic planning allowed the Chinese government to access the Gwadar port of Pakistan which is presently under construction. This development served to not only shock people from some of the world’s capitals but it also attracted the international intellectual community toward South Asia. Scholars from different regions have expressed varying opinions and diverse thoughts on Pakistan-China economic cooperation under the corridor project.
There are a number of academic and journalistic writings from Pakistan containing different arguments in an effort to study various features of Islamabad-Beijing economic collaboration under CPEC. The academic community of Pakistan is presently vibrant in analysing the emerging collaboration of Chinese and Pakistani societies and their impacts on regional and global politics. An interaction of Chinese and Pakistani writers also became a factor in which the knowledge sharing from both sides formulated another direction of intellectual collaboration of both states. On similar lines, a recent bilingual study containing Chinese and English languages Gwadar: Balance in Transition tries to address the communities of both states. It is unconventionally a different study which is initially completed by Dr. Azhar Ahmad, an Islamabad based scholar. The writer is presently heading the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in Bahria University, Islamabad. He is one of the few scholars having proficiency in security matters under maritime politics.
Azhar Ahmad is very vocal in expressing his thoughts on various dimensions of maritime security affairs of world politics generally, and South Asian particularly. The book under review is his analytical study which talks about maritime affairs of South Asia while evaluating the role of Gwadar port in Pakistan. The book is his PhD research which is not only appreciated by local community of Pakistan but it is highly admired by Chinese intellectuals. The Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences selected the manuscript of Azhar Ahmad for publication and further translated it into Chinese language. In this way, the bilingual feature of this book compiled on Gwadar port project enhanced its global significance.
The book is divided into six brief chapters, and every chapter covers exclusively a separate theme. Chapter first starts the debate from the concept of national power and its varying formats in the world and the last chapter ends the discussion on the significance of Gwadar and its role in introducing the updated concepts of social prosperity and economic in Pakistan. In the start, the discussion on the notion of national powers and its different elements provides a comprehensive survey of different sources of powers and their roles in nation buildings across the world. The subsequent chapters of the book explain the maritime politics while debating the different conceptual designs of maritime strategy and naval power. Moreover, the relevance of sea power and its role in the national building highlights the geostrategic connotation of Gwadar port in regional and global politics.
The discussion on Gwadar tries to address five basic misunderstandings which are called the major gaps in the existing literature. First of all, the history of Gwadar is not well documented, secondly, the lack of accurate data and sufficient information on Gwadar, thirdly, the anti-Gwadar propaganda mainly consisting of Indian and American scholars which try to damage or harm the scope of Gwadar port. The literature maintained by such intellectual circles critically evaluate the role of CPEC along with the emerging Pak-China economic cooperation. Fourthly, another group of academics questions the feasibility or need for a port in Pakistan generally, and at Gwadar particularly. In the last point, the writer highlights the undocumented maritime sector in Pakistan which is seeking adequate responses from policymakers. In this way, the author’s main objective is to study the maritime borders of Pakistan while exclusively emphasizing the Gwadar port project.
The most interesting part of the book starts from Chapter two which provides a philosophical framework of the study. The theoretical work done by leading naval strategists such as Julian Corbett, Alfred Mahan, and Admiral Gorshkov provide an insightful discussion in the book. The writer attempts to cover various theoretical explanations of maritime politics and the significance of naval power in the life of a state. In addition to an exclusive literature review on oceanic attributes of world politics, the study contains an extensive and thought-provoking account of different philosophical extents of marine borders of a state. In order to protect the maritime boundaries of states, the maintenance of a robust naval force under a comprehensive maritime strategy is an essential need which cannot simply be overlooked according to writer.
An ignored and unnoticed maritime sector in Pakistan is the central theme of this research in which the author attempts to be vocal about the significance of maritime strategy in Pakistan. In this way, chapter three mentions the maritime potential of Pakistan. The idea of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) explains the geological importance of the Arabian Sea in which Pakistan shares an area of approximately 240,000 sq. km (p. 74). In this area, Pakistan has an enormous amount of both living and non-living resources which need to be explored and exploited. After focusing on the marine treasures of Pakistan, the author offers a comprehensive history of mercantile marine in Pakistan. In the absence of a well-structured and well-organised state infrastructure for addressing maritime problems, the oceanic maritime sector of Pakistan remains an ignored field, according to Azhar Ahmad.
Chapter four of the book principally speaks about Gwadar while describing the history of Makran. The history of Makran remained disturbed due to the colonial influence of extra-regional and political influence of regional powers. Moreover, the area of Gwadar remained an area of confrontation between Pakistan and Oman and the issue was resolved in 1958 when Gwadar was positively transferred to Pakistan (p.133). The second last chapter of the book reveals an interesting account of geopolitical attributes of great powers over Gwadar. The geopolitical interests of regional and extra-regional players including the United States, European Union, India, China, Afghanistan and the states of Persian Gulf and Central Asian regions are basically fabricating a perplexing geostrategic competition over Gwadar.
The last chapter of Azhar Ahmad’s study articulates about the maritime sector of Pakistan and its contribution to the national prosperity and security of Islamabad. The notion of prosperity encompasses the treasures of natural resources in Balochistan, the economic importance of Gwadar port, the industrial worth of Gwadar in shipping and ship-building sector, and the various competitive advantages attached to the project of Gwadar port. Additionally, the relevance of fishing industry to Pakistan’s economy and the economic activities related to fishing business coupled with the numerous investment opportunities in Gwadar are main points of discussion in the last chapter. In the end, before concluding the research, the author describes some challenges and obstacles in the way of implementation of the Gwadar project.
This book is unique because it addresses several unaddressed questions related to Gwadar which cannot simply be ignored because he expressed his thoughts on a time when the international and regional players are looking toward Gwadar port project. Moreover, the international community is observing the changing dynamics of oceanic politics in the nuclearized subcontinent. The emerging Sino-Pak economic cooperation has no doubt hampered the traditional patterns of South Asian politics, but it has altered the conventional principles of international power politics. Another unique feature of the book is its bilingual text which proves that the translation in further different languages is not a difficult task. In order to comprehend the maritime sector of Pakistan under the mega Gwadar project parallel to the mega economic scheme of CPEC, the book is expected to be translated in various other languages. In short, it is a study of contemporary world politics in which China’s economic rise and Chinese economic cooperation with Pakistan through the development of Gwadar port has become an irrefutable reality.
The author is a prolific writer and is consistently working on creating awareness and informing about the maritime potential of Pakistan. Numerous research papers and countless addresses of writer are available on the same subject which could be easily accessed.
