New Perspectives on Pakistan's Political Economy
New Perspectives on Pakistan's Political Economy is a burning issue nowadays in Pakistan, A brief but comprehensive discussion and keen observation about this topic are shared here in a few lines.
New Perspectives on Pakistan's Political Economy
Pakistan’s economy is under attack – from all directions.
To be certain, Pakistan’s ‘economic security continues to be the most neglected element of our ‘national security. For us, ‘national security continues to be all about ‘military security. For us, national security continues to be unidimensional. For us, national security continues to be uni-organisational. There’s little doubt that ‘economic weapons’ are being deployed to ‘influence, coerce, intimidate and undermine’ Pakistan’s interest.
“War is now conducted by a roughly 4:1 ratio of non-military and military measures. Today nonlinear war is all about the deployment of conventional military forces in conjunction with ‘economic weapons’.
A New Battlefield For The Countries
is one that enables them to go after those who wish them harm without putting their troops in harm’s way or using lethal force. Countries are now continuing to “employ – and increasingly rely upon – financial measures to help achieve their core foreign policy and national security goals.
As with all other instruments of a country's national power, the use and effects of financial weapons are interrelated and they must be coordinated carefully. Financial markets actually provide a theatre similar to the nuclear environment to play out pseudo nuclear war. the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation are the offshoots of economic warfare. Instead of fighting countries militarily, the developed countries like the United States of America, China, Russia and other countries can now cripple each other financially.
Economic Security As a ‘System’
We need to adopt ‘economic security as a ‘system’ – a system whose functions are divided up into at least four groups: protective function, regulatory function, warning function and a social function. 1)Economic security’s protective function is about ‘protecting critical economic infrastructure, sectors and processes’ from internal and external threats.
2)Regulatory function is about government regulation of critical sectors.
3)the warning function of “state economic security is focused on predicting the emergence of potential crisis situations during economic activity and on preparing the economic system to resist them
We need to understand that financial warfare is now a preferable alternative to military conflict. We need to understand financial weapons of war. We need to map out our financial vulnerabilities. And, we need to understand the non-military threat spectrum.
Yes, financial warfare is the new waterfront – and it's a 24/7 war. Pakistan must also move away from the “rigid military taxonomy presently employed to define warfare”. The once clear-cut division between war and peace has been erased – completely erased. The new war has no division between military and civilian engagement either.
There’s little doubt that our national security now “requires a new paradigm that facilitates the change from a singular military approach to a multidimensional, multi-organisational” approach. There’s little doubt that we need to redesign our national security with the ‘economy’ as its core. There’s little doubt that ‘economic security is the organic dimension of ‘national security.
WRITINGS OF SHAFIQ UR REHMAN
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