Military: A strong pillar of national power potential
IN international politics, the national power of a state is considered as the hallmark while determining the status of a state. The national power of any state relies on the combination of many elements and factors, commonly known as the elements of national power. Among these elements of national power there are some tangible elements while others are intangible. Whereas the geopolitics of a state is a significant aspect in determining the national power potentials, the masses, economic factors and national institutions have the key role in this respect.
Military power is an undeniable factor which really matters in the national power potential of all states; under-developed, developing and the developed ones. Pakistan is bestowed with a significant geopolitical location which is unique in the world; linking the regions with each other as a junction in Asian continent. At the same time, its geopolitics attracts international and regional rivalries. Traditionally, the military of Pakistan has acted as a very strong pillar of national power.
In this perspective, the military of Pakistan faced numerous challenges while defeating the aggressive designs of rival powers at regional and international levels. In order to demonstrate its desired power potential, the military needs the support of the masses of Pakistan. Customarily, the masses of Pakistan respected and loved the military for its effective role in all wars and while combating the non-traditional security threats and challenges.
Unfortunately, there has been an undesired and a sudden rise in the campaign of politicization of the Pakistani military at the level of various political forces, several non-state actors and social media groups. These groups make use of mainstream as well as the social media for their disinformation campaigns to defame and politicize the military. It appears that this politicization of Pakistani Military is part of a larger international agenda against most organized and highly professional outfit of Pakistan. This campaign of defamation and politicization of Pakistani Military has two dimensions — internal and external.
Internally, politicization of the Pakistani military aims at defamation to de-popularize it among the masses, who traditionally loved the institution. In fact, Pakistani military draw its strength from the masses of Pakistan. This intimate bond and devoted connection is the real area of concern for the rival forces. The foes of Pakistan, therefore, have chosen to target this intimate relationship in phase one of their larger anti-Pakistan agenda. During this phase, the planners would like to create differences between the masses and military through indirect strategy of defamation while negatively agitating the sentiments of the masses and creating abhorrence against the institution of military.
Indeed, no external power can succeed in overpowering Pakistan in the presence of a very strong and highly professional military. The foes of Pakistan tried it in the past, global war against terrorism being the last episode. The intimacy and strong association between Pakistani military and the masses enabled the former to combat, defeat and root out this internationally-sponsored terrorism against the state and society of Pakistan. The brave men of Pakistani military crushed the terrorists and their abettors which annoyed the planners who further diversified their strategies against Pakistan.
At domestic front the Pakistani military had to confront many zones of conflict: the sub-nationalist in the province of Balochistan, the hardliner and so-called religious groups like TTP. There were many other splinter groups that attacked directly and indirectly while supporting the militants and sub-nationalists. Besides, the militants from Afghanistan who frequently attack along Pak-Afghan border on military posts. Despite Taliban rule since August 2021, terrorist outfits like TTP, the sub-nationalists are still using Afghan soil for terrorist attacks against Pakistan.
While debating the external dimension of targeting Pakistan and its military, it appears that after having failed in their strategies and efforts of weakening the Pakistani Military through direct approach, the international spying network has adopted an indirect strategy to weaken the Pakistani military. They assume that, after weakening the military, there will be no force to resist the international and regional forces to ruin Pakistan, the way it happened with Iraq and Libya. Defamation and politicization of Pakistani military is an indirect approach to shatter Pakistan in a future scenario.
It is a strategy of war, used by ancient military strategists like; Carl Von Clausewitz (Prussian General and military theorist) and Sun Tzu (Chinese General and military strategist). These strategists and many others have advised their governments to formulate strategies to defeat your enemy from within. Defeating the enemies from within have many elucidations; creating fault lines, causing split, defamation and humiliation, hatching plots and conspiracies, politicization of key institutions and causing hatred against institutions of national security.
Politicization and defamation of military would further lead towards creation of a sense of demoralization among the fighting outfits. It is to be noted that the Pakistani military is amongst the top few militaries of the world from the perspective of professionalism, bravery and dedication. Therefore, let’s not allow defamation and politicization of Pakistani military. It is hard to imagine the challenges and hardships the military men face while confronting the enemies of various categories; conventional and unconventional, kinetic and non-kinetic and, above all, the threats of hybrid warfare. Indeed, Pakistani military backed by its masses is the guarantor of national security as the most significant pillar of national power potential.
— The writer is Professor of Politics and IR at International Islamic University, Islamabad.
Email: [email protected]
