Pakistan has often been described as a security state because external or territorial defense and security has been its main concern since its independence in August 1947.
This has eclipsed other factors and conditions shaping the country’s domestic political and economic decisions and foreign policy options.
Initially, Pakistan’s focus was on securing the territorial boundaries against military threats from its immediate neighbors India and Afghanistan. India was seen by Pakistan as a primary security threat and Afghanistan was considered a security irritant, for a host of reasons that surfaced in the early years of independence. While there were periods of normalized and peaceful relations between India and Pakistan, their relationship has generally been marked by mutual distrust, negative propaganda, hostility to violence on the Line-of-Control in Kashmir, and hot and cold wars. With Afghanistan, Pakistan’s relations have ranged from cordial and peaceful to periodic diplomatic and military encounters.
Bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s transit trade through Pakistan, as well as an ethnic overlap, bind these two countries together despite periodic problems in their relations.
As Pakistan’s security threats emanated from its immediate neighborhood, it secured diplomatic and military support from the countries outside its geographical region to counter these threats. Pakistan joined the United States-sponsored regional security alliance system in 1954-55.
On two other occasions, Pakistan adopted a similar strategy of alignment with the U.S. to meet the immediate challenges to its territorial security.
Decades later, Pakistan joined hands with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s to build up the Islamic-Afghan resistance to oust Soviet forces that had occupied Afghanistan during the last week of December 1979. In the post-September 2001 period, Pakistan also joined the U.S.-sponsored global coalition to fight terrorism, especially against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants based in Afghanistan. It also obtained military equipment, training and diplomatic support on these three occasions.
In addition to security policies involving military and non-military strategies, Pakistan is also taking measures to block external support for those seeking to challenge the supremacy of the state from within.
Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi
Pakistan’s strategy of seeking friends located far away helped address its immediate territorial security needs. However, in the long run, this relationship proved to be unreliable and created foreign policy problems. In 1954-55, Pakistan’s decision to join the U.S.-sponsored regional alliances dragged Islamabad and New Delhi into the global Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, making it difficult to settle the Kashmir problem and other issues with India. In the case of the next two security episodes, the partnership proved to be a temporary affair and, with the passage of time, both the U.S. and Pakistan developed complaints against each other.
Pakistan’s external security approach underwent a dramatic change in May 1998, after India’s nuclear tests which forced Islamabad to undertake similar nuclear tests. Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs since then have secured its external security vis-à-vis India, as both acknowledge each other’s nuclear weapons capability. Now, India and Pakistan use limited military action and other strategies short of a full war to exert pressure on each other.
Pakistan also began to assign a higher priority to another dimension to its internal security in the post-Cold War era that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Its internal security approach focuses on the economic and socio-political conditions within the country. If the country faces an acute internal economic crisis and its economy can no longer sustain the population, or if it experiences persistent internal dissent — such as separatist movements and civil strife — its capacity to withstand external pressures and achieve external security will be greatly undermined.
Similarly, religious and cultural extremism and terrorism, such as those currently afflicting Pakistan, is also a major security challenge for Pakistan.
Some noteworthy efforts have been made to control the menace of extremism and terrorism. However, it haunts Pakistan’s internal stability from time to time.
The third dimension of security calls for safeguarding against external penetration and intervention into internal affairs without the active involvement of troops.
External adversaries can undermine the internal security and stability of a country by providing funds, weapons, safe hideouts or training, political support and propaganda through modern communication and information technology to dissidents and extremists who challenge the supremacy of state from within.
Conscious of such security threats, Pakistan’s security establishment is taking measures to block external support to terrorists and dissidents. Such a challenge also calls for establishing a political system that creates a sense of political participation and socio-economic justice among the ordinary people, which serves to neutralize external non-military efforts that undermine internal stability and harmony.
National security has become a challenging task for Pakistan and other counties. It requires a comprehensive and multi-dimensional approach that includes military as well as non-military and diplomatic strategies.
- Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi is a Pakistan-based political analyst. Twitter: @har132har
