Pondering traditional, non-traditional security imperatives
SUBSTANTIALLY, national security refers to the protection of a nation from attack or other danger by holding adequate armed forces and guarding state secrets. Traditionally, national security means a circumstance that exists as a result of a military or defence advantage over any foreign nation or group of nations, or a friendly foreign relations position, or a defence position capable of successfully protesting hostile or destructive action. Given this perspective of the changing security culture, Pakistan finds itself in an exigency of rebalancing the legitimate national security concerns vis-à-vis the traditional and non-traditional security threats-cum-imperatives.
Objectively, because of the complex nature and matrix of our national security perspective, we cannot exclude the significance of our national security from the ongoing debate— pondering the imperatives of national security doctrine– envisaging the evolving dynamics of security culture with that of the growing and emerging security needs—as today Pakistan is broadly exposed to both traditional and non-traditional security challenges. Today, Pakistan needs some articulate deliberations. The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, once said “The weak and defenceless, in this imperfect world, invite aggression from others.” While tactics and strategies are devised to effectively handle visualized threats and an anticipated undesirable situation, efforts are also made simultaneously to inculcate a sense of security among the citizens
Traditional-cum-non-traditional national security challenges: Pakistan is hemmed in with multiple traditional national security challenges: Threat from the Indian aggression, cyberspace, securitization of our western waters (Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab rivers), and strategic stability are the most daunting traditional security threats. Whereas the non-traditional security threats come from the war against terrorism, economic and political instability, poverty, illiteracy, corruption, population bomb and the environmental degradation. Few of them are selectively discussed here.
Securitization of the Indus Basin Treaty: by all means, the ongoing Indian infringements of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) pose a great threat to the people of Pakistan and its economy as India has been illegally using the water of our western rivers by building dams on the illegally Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Indus water is a bloodline of Pakistan’s economy. Undeniably, today, Pakistan is also lagging in sustainable development goals for human security in the domains of health, nutrition, water availability and hygiene. Water is a useful tool for energy production to deal with the crisis of energy. Thus, Pakistan must be highly committed to revitalising its hydro power potentials. In this regard, after China, Russia is ready to help us.
Strategic stability: The most haunting issue for regional peace is none but the strategic stability that is time and again challenged by India’s anti peace nuclear doctrine and moves. By any strategic accounts. The Balakot and Shorkot events– taking place in February, 2019 and March, 2022– hold enough reasons that Modi’s policies pose great danger to peace in the region. To counter the threat posed from Indian aggression, the only viable and sustainable nuclear security alternative for Pakistan is to uncompromisingly maintain its policy of full spectrum deterrence (FSD). Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and the Strategic Plans Division (SPD) must be credited for making it the most secure and safe nuclear state in the region.
Cyber security: Today, cyberspace has become a rising challenge to the nations in the 21st century in which the threat of data stealth has become the most pertinent security challenge. All the while, cyber space has also been used and introduced in military doctrine since cyber warfare is an extremely effective and inexpensive tool which has replaced soldiers and fleets with few strokes of keys, still equally capable of bringing widespread and wide-ranging destruction upon the enemy. Many countries have adopted it as a principal weapon against their adversaries. Pakistan too, is extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks, especially by our arch-rival India-embarking on a hybrid war against Pakistan. Pakistan must advance its cyber security mechanism.
Economic stability: Currently put, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to precarious levels and stood at just over $3 billion, hardly enough to meet with the brewing challenges. Inflation has also skyrocketed to 31.5%, according to official data published Wednesday. Food and fuel prices have soared beyond the means of many Pakistanis. Arguably, decades of financial mismanagement, corruption, and political instability remain the most driving causes of the current economic crisis. Moreover, a global energy crisis and last year’s devastating floods across the country have worsened the crisis— intrinsically depending our survival on the IMF deal.
Terrorism and violent extremism: For years and years, Pakistan is confronted with the menace of extremism, radicalization, and violent behaviour via Non State Actors (NSAs). It is important to note that Pakistan has been a victim of cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. And that has really shaped Pakistan threat perception and also got it to devise strategies that helps to combat this threat. Pakistan is constantly facing the challenge to address this issue. But the efforts to confront radicalism and violent extremism cannot accomplish unless supported by the multiple dynamic strategies. Radicalism is intertwined with other social dynamics, and thus a reductionist approach fails to address this issue. The current intermittent terrorist attacks in KP and the Balochistan provinces indicate an alarming situation for our security establishment.
Population & poverty threat: Pakistan is the world’s fifth most populous country. Out of the total population, 29.5% live below the poverty line. However, on the flip side, Pakistani culture encourages women to have large families instead of small ones due to the country’s scarcity of resources. This increasing population is not only a burden on the small number of resources, but also endangering the future generation. We need to be vigilant of the impending food crisis, which has been doubled down because of the ongoing war in Ukraine between the Western powers and Russia.
The Climate Change challenges: Pakistan has been consistently ranked among the top 10 most vulnerable countries on the Climate Risk Index, with 10,000 fatalities due to climate-related disasters and financial losses amounting to about $4 billion from 173 extreme weather events. Though Pakistan is signatory to international commitments on climate change, such as the 1998 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement, Indian CO2 emission poses great threat to our regional climate, causing speedy melting of the Himalayan glaciers, and torrential rains resulting in heavy floods in Pakistan during the monsoon seasons. Pakistan must contact the related donor agencies in order to address the future flood rehabilitation challenges. To conclude, our civil Government and military establishment need to make policies that could comprehensively address both the conventional and non-conventional security challenges faced by the Government and the people of Pakistan.
