Analysing the Pashtun identity as an instrument of securitization through the Afganistan-Pakistan border dispute in the post cold war period

This study analyzes, how the Pashtun ethnic community living on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Durand border line is presented as a security problem by the Pakistani and Afghanistan states and how it is included in the securitization process within the framework of the securitization approach put forward by the Copenhagen school. The answers given by the Pakistani and Afghanistan political actors to the question of who is the Pashtun and the perception created within the framework of the adjectives (speech-acts) they use, gave the actors the opportunity to mobilize. Pakistan and Afghanistan realized a successful securitization, thus it was able to go beyond the normal political rules and take extraordinary measures, which were largely regarded as legitimate by the audience.