National and transnational non-state actors: Strategic dimensions and regional security threats to CPEC

Abstract

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a ‘flagship Project’ of China’s wide-ranging and most advanced scheme of development initiated under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The project ranges from investment to infrastructure development in various sectors with an investment of $62 billion in Pakistan. However, the existential fact is that this project is not only restricted to economic growth and trade linkages. It has more strategic dimensions and arguably a strategic instrument in the hand of the Chinese to exponentially increase its influence from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. It is, undoubtedly, rapidly changing the regional apparatus in general and South Asia in Particular. This change on one side is creating space for multiple opportunities not only for Pakistan but at the same time offering bounties to regional countries, but on the other hand security threats and asymmetrical propaganda is on the rise against the CPEC. The most significant aspect which is being neglected in this scenario is the ever-increasing activities of non-state actors which are operating surreptitiously in Pakistan as well as its neighborhood. The presence of ISIS, Baloch insurgency, and TTP are a potential threat and their close nexus and support from inside and outside the country have substantially been proofed. Thus, the current research is divided into two parts. The first part argues that the CPEC project is no doubt a security-oriented, geopolitically, and strategically driven endeavor but predominantly linked with economic growth and regional connectivity. The second part deals with the potential threats to the CPEC posed by the national and transnational non-state actors.