Pakistan Studies in the Age of Globalization

Over the past decade it has gradually become apparent that we are living in an age that is characterized by globalization. There is no single accepted definition of this process, although the word has been in our vocabulary for forty years. Our initial efforts to make sense of it have understandably focused so far on economic and political consequences. These are the most conspicuous, but the long-term significance is deeper and more comprehensive. Globalization has been building for several decades, and may have been inevitable. It is already palpable in relatively conservative sectors of our lives, such as the academic curriculum, and our formulation of research problems. It affects the year-to-year planning of institutions like AIPS, because of changes in the priorities of funding agencies, as well as individual academic careers. Unlike other types of social and cultural change over the past generation, globalization (as the term itself implies) is essentially global, and is therefore as visible in the national culture of countries like Pakistan as much as any in OECD. Pakistan Studies is a form of cultural and intellectual dialogue between the West and Pakistan. This dialogue when it began was bilateral. In the age of globalization it has been subsumed into the larger global dialogue. What are the implications of this change?