ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that the context for a larger and fuller rebalancing of Pakistan's civil-military relations is currently inauspicious, not least due to the ongoing internal struggle with violent Islamic extremism, and that the current position of the Pakistan Army makes it all but impossible for internal and external actors to force the army into a democratic subordination of a Western liberal kind. The prospect of a de-politicisation offers the Pakistan military to play a more constructive role in the trajectory and pace of democratic transition. The democratic transition's roles would include the provision of security, ensuring plurality, the strengthening of democratic institutions and rule of law. In addition, the vagaries of global finance and the demands of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) can leave economically engaged militaries, no less than nations and peoples, very exposed, as was the Egyptian military at the time of the global food crisis in 2007.
