​​

 

Pakistan is located in the middle-east between Afghanistan, India, Iran, and China, and has a border along the Ocean. This is to its benefit as it allows for international trade and shipping with access to the sea, and the country itself has trade ties with China and many central-Asian countries. This helps strengthen its economy, providing jobs that benefits the overall population as well as the country’s GDP. Pakistan also has many natural resources that can be mined and exported. These also include things such as metals and precious stones, natural gas and oil, and more. This wealth of natural resources additionally boosts the economy for exports and allows for further trade and trade agreements with other countries. Additionally, Pakistan is a sovereign state, meaning it is self-governing. This also increases stability as the government has a higher chance of being more directly representative of its people in a state governed by itself and not an external force. Sovereign states can also be less prone to uprisings against a larger power as has been seen in wars like the American Revolution, where the American Colonies fought against an external governing power. Pakistan’s ability to self-govern also means that taxes from residents go back into the country instead of to an external force.

​

All that said, Pakistan has many destabilizing factors. According to the Fragile States Index (FSI) Pakistan Is ranked 27th in the world (for context the US is 141st, the UK is 148th) for being a fragile state. The number of points assigned by the FSI has been going down (a positive occurrence) since about 2016 but is going back up again. Its high ranking is partially due to terrorist groups such as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan who have attempted takeovers of its government in the past. The group is tied with the Afghani Taliban and operates on the border in a region called the Federally Administered Tribal Area. The government has since fought back with anti-terrorism operations with some success but this violent conflict continues instability. The TTP has committed acts of terrorism against groups of civilians in public spaces multiple times, and this fear as well as the focus of the government on the TTP and less so on its people can lead to instability in the region. Lastly, Pakistan and India both claim sovereignty to a region known as the Kashmir region. This leads to disputes along the border which in turn cause increased instability.

​

I chose a stability rating of -3 because on my scale the destabilizing factors greatly outnumbered the stabilizing ones, and the various stabilizing factors (natural resources, trade) don’t greatly outbalance or cancel out the destabilizing ones. Though trade and access to natural resources is a benefit that builds the Pakistani economy, as long as disputes along the Federally Administered Tribal Region and the Kashmir region still occur, funds from a strong economy will only further fund conflict in these areas. Since Pakistan is still a functioning state without wide spread civil war or the like, I chose not to give it a -4 or -5, but the country still faces conflict/violence and (historically) terrorism. As long as these disputes are still happening the country will remain somewhat unstable though its rating could eventually become a -2 or even -1. For now however, I think it will remain at -3.