Dear Harshvardhan Singh

Thanks a lot for such useful links. God bless you for this kind act.Am very thankful to you:-)

I would not separate political cost and benefit from economic, these 2 are interrelated. The political cost (say, losing elections in a democracy or having a coup in an authoritarian state) comes hand-in-hand with economic cost - to the ruling elites, but also to the nation at large. Generally speaking, political cost is about losing power or weakening your power position, and political benefit is about increasing or solidifying power.  However, wrong political decisions typically result in large economic costs for the country: cf. Ukraine's decision to turn its back on Russia.

Thanks Mr. Mikhail Molchanov  :-)

Please see

Hausken, K. (2016), “A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Terrorist Attacks,” Defence and Peace Economics Forthcoming.

Hausken, K. (2016), “Cost-Benefit Analysis of War,” International Journal of Conflict Management forthcoming.

Article A cost–benefit analysis of terrorist attacks

Dear Mr.Kjell Hausken .Thanks for sharing your research papers.Surely both are useful but still my question is that how can we define political cost and benefits .

For a treatment of the more general framework of the costs and benefits of fighting wars, see the long list of work on the expected utility of conflict, beginning with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita's The War Trap.

Read my article "War against Terrorism and its Repercussions for Pakistan", on page also see Fazal Rabbi, “Pakistan’s Role in the War on Terror: Costs-Benefits Examination,” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies XXXVI, no. 3 (Spring 2014): 63-91. I hope it will help.

Dear Fazal Rabbi Sahab 

AOA

I am really glad to see your answer , I already have read your article and "War against Terrorism and its Repercussions for Pakistan" and cited in thesis.surely I shall study the other one too which you have mentioned here.I have a question that what is political cost and benefit and  is there any way to measure political cost?

I will say yes there are ways to measure political costs or benefits and I am also agree with Mikhail Molchanov that "I would not separate political cost and benefit from economic". 

If you are looking for operational definition of political benefits or costs analysis, then you may need to read those articles mentioned above. You may also consult some theoretical works. 

Its complicated and some time a puzzle to measure political cost-benefits. However I will suggest for of all, you may fix those political issues you want to address, then analyze the affects of events/programs/policies on those issues.

If your purpose is to analyze the political costs-benefits of war on terror for Pakistan, then look for issues that have been affected like Pakistan's Afghan policy and Kashmir policy affected where u will see u-turn, offensive or defensive decision etc.

I think it will help you.

Dear Fazal Rabbi sahab

Thanks a lot for guidance.

It would be very difficult thing to measure (political cost and benefit) simply because there is very little transparency in the political and the economic systems of Pakistan, simply put, it is not a democratic system. The military has huge influence on the economy in that country. many Officers are silent millionaires working their black magic behind the scenes while the public has no clue. 

Dear Richard 

Situation isn't that much bleak:-)

Are you trying to measure the political Cost-benefit in monetary terms, or you are going to design independent Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) scale of political decisions? As you may know, CBA is a comparison technique, and in order to compare, you need a scientific valid "reference". SO when the Pakistani leaders willing to take a political decision, your CBA would involve two things,

1- is it a wise decision (justified),

2- CBA of each alternative option so you can have an idea of whether the benefits outweigh the costs (or vice versa) and by how much.

Good Luck

It involves the definition of risk in political action. This is a research area still open to exploration in operational terms.