Daily Times Editorial Jan 6, 2013

New military doctrine Prime Minister (PM) Raja Pervez Ashraf has outlined the need for Pakistan to redesign and redefine its military doctrine in an address at the National Defence College. As part of this rethink, the PM underlined the criticality of improved intelligence gathering and coordination amongst all civil and military institutions if terrorism is to be tackled comprehensively and successfully. Non-state actors are targeting the state’s symbols and institutions in a bid to impose their agenda, the PM said. He formulated the complex and multi-faceted nature of national security in today’s dynamically changing world, requiring a strategic framework that encompasses all elements of national power while coming to grips with internal and external challenges. National security can no longer be guaranteed unless sustainable socio-economic growth, political sovereignty and stability, rule of law, food security, stable state institutions and technological advance are attained. The terrorists thrive in the antithesis of these elements, comprising an environment of chaos, uncertainty and instability. The PM pointed to the critical role of the media in forging a consensus on the broad contours of national security. The war against the terrorists is also psychological and ideological. The regressive mindset that has state and society in its grip and is constantly refurbished and strengthened either by overt or covert support to the terrorists’ agenda has to be combated if we are save our culture, values and way of life, the PM argued. The military confronts a nameless and faceless enemy and cannot succeed against it without the will and support of the people. The PM paid tribute to the sacrifices of the military and security forces in this struggle, and vowed that the support and resources of the government and parliament were solidly behind the armed forces in this endeavour. The PM’s remarks come at a time when the armed forces reportedly are themselves engaged in revisiting their doctrine in the light of the changing nature of the threat to state and society. Traditionally, the military establishment has been oriented towards an east-west border security paradigm. If the threat from the east in the past was sought to be met by a conventional (and later nuclear) defence strategy, the western border was supposedly made safe by reliance on non-state jihadi extremists. During the long years of intervention in Afghanistan, starting from the early 1970s and escalating through the Soviet occupation and subsequent intra-Afghan wars, this reliance on proxies finally came home to haunt us with a vengeance in the shape of homegrown terrorists who have challenged the state arms in hand. If the strategic regional and international shifts have persuaded both Pakistan and India that their mutual inertest lies in normalising relations despite lingering issues and differences, implying a relative abatement of the eastern threat perception, the western border theatre remains a headache. COAS General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani has conceptually indicated the shift in GHQ’s thinking by emphasising that the threat to Pakistan lies within, not without. A breed of armed, fanatically driven, battle hardened terrorists has state and society by the throat. If in days gone by (and perhaps until recently), the military considered itself the repository of all wisdom concerning national security (hence the growth and consolidation over a passage of decades of the national security state), time has proved that war is too serious a business to be left to the Generals alone. Today’s wars, whether conventional or asymmetrical, have to be fought with the full gamut of military and civilian tools available to ensure that the terrorists who pose an existential threat to state and society are routed ideologically, politically, militarily, through good intelligence and police work, and with the full and unstinted support of the civilian polity and citizenry. That is precisely why we have constantly argued in this space for an overhaul of the present paradigm of fighting against terrorism by ensuring such coordination and taking into account the ideological and political ramifications of this struggle. Without a comprehensive strategy, and the organisational structure to implement it, the fight will be that much harder.