A holistic National Security Policy

It must be taken as an integrated whole

Free for all is what describes the state of insecurity in Pakistan. Any one man, can ride, rampage, ravage anybody at any given time. That is the feeling majority of Pakistanis are having at the horrors unfolding daily in various parts of the country. The Islamabad incident has been shrugged off by the government as something that you see regularly in the west as well. That statement itself smirks of a complete lack of understanding of the issue, the public emotion and any plausible solution to this problem. That the incident happened in the heart of Pakistan, under red alert with the highest level of security around it, is what sends shivers down masses that live without these so called security facilities. While mad and insane men are having a terror bonanza, the government is still trying to pen down a national security policy.

The definition of security itself is least understood by many including our policy makers. Most of us have this top of the mind image of blasts and bullets blowing off people with criminal insanity.

But national security is a much larger and deeper issue. The Harvard University professor Charles Maier’s definition of national security is defined through the lens of national power: “National security… is best described as a capacity to control those domestic and foreign conditions that the public opinion of a given community believes necessary to enjoy its own self-determination or autonomy, prosperity and wellbeing.” This of course means that security is much more than physical or geographical security. In its narrowest terms it can be interpreted as defending its citizens against internal and external aggression. This is primarily under military security. Till date this is the interpretation that most people carry when they talk about safe lives. In Pakistan as well the word security is mentioned whenever India/Pakistan border clashes are sparked or terrorists blow themselves off. That remains a matter of huge concern but we need to see security as an integrated avenue where all elements of national security are taken together to get the big picture benefit.

Political security relates to threats to national sovereignty. This includes assessing how the political decision making is being sabotaged by forces outside the political order of the country causing a disturbance in its societal order. This is the most disturbing element in Pakistan. Since Ziaul Haq’s time this stance has severely damaged our political security. The decision to sponsor the mujahideen against the Russians has been the root cause of many political ailments in the country. Drone attacks are the result of collusion of various Pakistani governments to let the US use our air bases and continue to violate our sovereignty. These are acts that affect social equilibrium of the affected areas.

Internationally drone damage to civilians is recognized as illegal and in research it is proven that it is counterproductive to controlling terrorism. Thus when a government continuously lets a foreign power encroach its territory, it endangers not only its political security but its societal security as well. The government really needs to review its contracts with NATO and the US etc. to see if national interest is really being served or not.

Until and unless this element of political security is addressed, unrest and strife in the society against political designs will not diminish. These then take the shape of rebellions, murders, blasts, strikes etc. Thus for our government to shrug off responsibility by saying that these contracts were made by previous governments is not enough. In our national security policy we need to understand all these limiting factors and devise strategies to deal with them.

One of the fundamental dangers to a country is when its lack of economic development makes it vulnerable to dictates by foreign elements. Food insecurity is a basic reason for crime and lawlessness. The lack of economic opportunities in the form of jobs and a reasonable quality of life has been often cited as key reason for public unrest. When the masses do not receive basic facilities like health and education, they retaliate by protesting in violent and non-violent ways against the government.

Also a government that cannot raise enough revenues to cover its expenditures then starts resorting to foreign aid in return for control over its policy making. The IMF is a tested tried example of this in the world especially in Pakistan where every government becomes a victim of the economic hitmen of these organizations who use threats of withdrawal of loans as a weapon to affect fiscal and monetary policy. One of the biggest reasons of crimes and violence in a country like Pakistan is that 70 per cent of its population is under 30 years of age and with a very high rate of illiteracy and unemployment. When young minds are not secure of their future in the country they express their insecurity by taking the law into their hands.

Another crucial element of national security is environmental security that includes water security, energy security, climate change security etc. As the natural environment becomes deficient in these resources it results in conflicts, crimes and sometimes war. Water availability in Pakistan has already reached scarcity levels and many estimates say that almost 90 per cent of the crimes in Pakistan are due to water disputes in rural areas. Similarly the violation of water rights in water treaties between India and Pakistan are definitely huge causes of regional conflict and stress. Energy crisis as we have seen in Pakistan has led to massive riots on daily basis. Deforestation and global warming resulting in floods etc. have been a regular socio- economic corrosion in Pakistan leading to displacement of people, destruction of their livelihood and disturbance in their social set up.

Any National Security plan that does not analyze all these threats and addresses them will eventually just be at most a copy-paste arrangement. The need in Pakistan is to make all stakeholders sit and share in a transparent way the constraints and the drivers in each area and on the basis of this realistic picture make a holistic policy that weaves a secure pattern of each element, its inter-linkages and its impact on the safety and sustainability of the country.

The writer is an analyst and columnist and can be reached at: [email protected]