The Jurisdictional Security Gap: Cross-Border Militancy and Persistent Insecurity in Pakistan's Western Borderlands

Abstract

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, bringing Pakistan's western border back into focus as a major security concern. Since then, Pakistan has tightened controls through border fencing, surveillance, regulated crossings, counter-terrorism operations, and diplomatic engagement. These steps, however, have not prevented militant violence from continuing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The question, therefore, is why insecurity persists even as Pakistan has invested more heavily in controlling its side of the border. This paper examines that question by looking at the limits of containment when militant groups can operate beyond Pakistan's territorial reach. This research uses qualitative document analysis and draws on academic literature, United Nations assessments, official Pakistani documents and security and policy reports. It examines the links between Afghan-side control limitations, militant operational space, cross-border spillover, Pakistan’s containment measures, and continuing insecurity in the borderlands. The findings indicate that stronger containment has improved Pakistan’s capacity to control movement, monitor the frontier, and disrupt militant activity within the country. However, these measures remain structurally limited when militant organisations retain infrastructure and operational space beyond Pakistan’s borders. The paper conceptualises this mismatch as a jurisdictional security gap through which insecurity originating beyond Pakistan’s territorial reach continues to produce spillovers in its borderlands. Stronger border-security measures can improve containment but cannot remove threats whose sources remain across the border. Domestic measures may reduce their effects, yet their impact remains limited while militant groups retain operational space outside Pakistan. Lasting security in the borderlands therefore requires both effective domestic containment and reduced space for militant activity beyond Pakistan’s borders.