(Re-)building Social Cohesion vis-à-vis Strategic Communication: A Pathway for Pakistan's National Strategy

Abstract

The advanced patterns of communications are not only meeting the centuries-awaited longings for liberty and freedom of expression but also bringing about new insecurities to national cohesion in the 21st century. Particularly, the fifth-generation warfare encompassed ‘a strategic communication network’ as its apex strategy wherein building and proliferation of narrative to attain specific goals is central to national strategy. Ironically, the Non-State Actors (NSAs) including insurgents are also effectively applying the tactics of strategic communication (SC) to propagate their narratives across the globe. BLA is an epitome of this in Pakistan. The research, therefore, investigates how SC framework could bring the marginalized and alienated groups into mainstream national politics without launching any coercive measure. In addition, the study systematically reviews the existing dominant models of SC around the world and presents a workable strategic communication framework for Pakistan by applying the qualitative method under an exploratory research paradigm.