THE HUMAN SECURITY PARADOX: ANALYZING THE IMPACT OF ISKP TRANSNATIONAL MILITANCY ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND BORDERLAND COMMUNITIES (2021–2026)

Abstract

The post-2021 development of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is analysed in terms of the implications for sustainable development and human security in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) borderlands and how ISKP's development affects the region. This study examines how the post-2021 evolution of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) affects human security and sustainable development in the Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) borderlands and how the development of ISKP impacts on the region. In this paper, a dual conceptual framework (Human Security Paradigm and Borderland Theory) is applied to the analysis of the "human security paradox" as a different way of looking at ISKP than found in the mainstream security and development studies literature, which tends to focus on a state-centric and kinetic lens disregarding human development. The study adopts a qualitative desk research approach, involving a systematic analysis of content and thematic coding of valid secondary sources from 2021 to 2026. The results indicate that the Pakistan Armed Forces' high-risk kinetic operations have been essential in securing the country against territorial invasion, in combating the urban terror cells and ensuring a necessary level of security but taking a purely military-first approach is not feasible in the long term. The result of these aggressive anti-insurgency measures by the State, including heavy border fencing and market freezes, is to have effects that are unintended at best, and at worst, to shut down borderland economies and to stall UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8 and SDG 16), thus marginalizing the local population and systematically exploiting them by transnational networks for recruitment. Finally, the paper suggests that military force is a necessary precondition for creating the initial order and that long-term regional stability will only be achieved if there is an immediate shift towards a more comprehensive and community-based civilian administration, with emphasis on flexibility, local economic development, institutional strengthening, and a more flexible approach to human security.

Keywords: Transnational Militancy, ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Economics, Development Studies, Borderland Communities, Human Security Paradigm, Borderland Theory, Violent Non-State Actors (VNSAs), Af-Pak Borderlands, Durand Line, Post-2021 Security Vacuum, , Torkham and Chaman, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan Armed Forces, Kinetic Counterterrorism, State-Response Catch-22, Economic Growth (SDG 8).