Political Economy of Terrorism and War

Start from the present

Taliban Attacks in Pakistan (NY Times) Class Dismissed (NY Times)

Main questions
Where did this Taliban come from?

What was the role of domestic politics? Religious ideology, education, poverty?
Role of imperialism and occupations?

From Eqbal Ahmad

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan received a group of
bearded men. These bearded men I was writing about in those days in The New Yorker, actually did. They were very ferocious-looking bearded men with turbans looking like they came from another century. President Reagan received them in the White House. After receiving them he spoke to the press. He pointed towards them, Im sure some of you will recall that moment, and said, These are the moral equivalent of Americas founding fathers. These were the Afghan Mujahiddin. They were at the time, guns in hand, battling the Evil Empire. They were the moral equivalent of our founding fathers!

The Map: Territory & Community

Kashmir: What is at issue?

Self-determination and independence Secularism versus religion as a basis for states Territory Dislocation and loss of lives Identity

Some basics
Independence on August 14, 1947 East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan 4 provinces: Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, NWFP 3 territories: Azad Kashmir, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Gilgit-Baltistan National language is Urdu - but most people speak Punjabi (60-70%)

Pakistan (3)
Tensions with India, Kashmir situation etc., also created insecurity This led in turn to a strengthening of the military Resource scarcity Assassination of first PM Liaqaut Ali Khan By 1951, the US saw this as an opportunity to extend Cold War politics
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Sources of Power: Pakistan

Military Bureaucracy Landowning Classes Prime Minister and Party in government President Religion & Religious Leaders External relations (in particular, with the US)

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Locus of power
President
Undemocratic constitutions (especially since Zia), with unprecedented concentration of powers in the President Weakness of the political system; Perceived threat of external aggression History & state formation; Elitism of the Muslim League; Concentration of power in the head; Cultural bias against politicians; Perhaps the most complex locus of power The USs own interests - oil - anti-communism

Military Bureaucracy

Religion The US

Regimes
M.A. Jinnah (1947-8) Ayub Khan (1958-69) Yahya Khan (1969-71) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1971-77) Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz Sharif Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008) Present

Sources of legitimacy
Creator of independent Pakistan Developmentalism Democratization Democracy/populism Democratic regime (?) War on Terror Democracy (?)

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Constitution
3 constitutions since independence (1956, 1962, 1973) each reiterating the importance of Islam The last iteration (1973) of the constitution came after the cessation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971

Role of Religion in the State

The various degrees of state secularity/religiousity of different governments demonstrates the difficulties, at the state level, to articulate the role of Islam in the state Zia-ul-Haqs government (1973-1988) came closest to implementing Shariah law through its Islamization programs, but no federal government has fully implemented Shariah Law Shariah Law has existed, however, in certain territories

Women in Pakistan
Zia-ul-Haqs Islamization policies had detrimental effects for women especially through a set of law called the Hudood Ordinances A vocal and vociferous womens movement emerged during Zias rule Womens movement in Pakistan struggling to articulate a balance between Islam and secularism

Political Economy of Defence

Ayesha Jalal (1995) has argued that Pakistans overdeveloped military has had determinative effects on Pakistans political economy She argues that there is a key difference between the political economies of India and Pakistan:
India has a political economy of development Pakistan has a political economy of defence

Political Economy of Defence

First decade after independence, Pakistani military and civil administration took up 3/4 of the federal budget Military governments
Ayub Khan (1958) Zia-ul Haq (1977) Pervez Musharraf (1999)

Political Economy of Defence

Class aspect of military is tied to the extent to which the military has been able to infiltrate key economic structures/entities Military presence can be felt in: housing developments, agriculture, transportation, oil/gas, defence production, hospitals, schools Greater upward mobility for military personnel and their families because of access to better social services (schools, hospitals)

Political Economy of Defence

Dominance of non-elected institutions in Pakistanpoints to a disjunction between state power and class power (Jalal, 144) Support of landowning families alongside failure to bring about effective land reforms Mutually constitutive relationship between dominant social classes and military i.e. members of military entereing dominant social classes, and dominant social classes being protected by military

Political Economy of Defence

Why military overdevelopment? Pakistan: On a Razor s Edge

Opposition to military
The military has been met with opposition from other political parties But many of the same parties have often worked in tandem with the military to secure their power The times where political parties have emerged in opposition to the military is connected to the degree of economic marginalization in the country

Opposition to military
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party) took power in 1971 in the context of unrest in rural areas, including rural Punjab Roti, kapra, aur makaan - bread, clothes, and shelter (1971-1977) Glimmer of democracy Bhutto legacy (dynasty) is very strong but is also often romanticized (ex. treatment mohajirs) Post-Zia - constitutional coups

Strategic Importance of Pakistan in International Relations

Pakistans neighbours - Afghanistan, Iran, India, China Cold War War on Terror Not separate from overdevelopment of military

Human Development in Pakistan

http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/ PAK.html Does this mean terrorism? What does your book say?

Schaeffer: (1)

First, 9/11 joined together separate problems across the Middle East: conflicts related to partition in India and Palestine and revolutions and wars in the Gulf and Afghanistan.

Schaeffer (2)
Before 9/11, these conflicts were treated as distinct problems. Today, they are seen as inextricably linked.

Schaeffer (3)
in regional terms, 9/11 prompted U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush administrations war on terror also led to the intensificationof already existing conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and between Indians, Pakistanis, and Muslim insurgents in the Kashmir.

Schaeffer (4)
Third, in economic terms, 9/11 and the wars that followed contributed to recession and, more recently, a new housing crisis.

How have these wars been fought?

outsourcing war Estimates of the numbers of
PMC personnel in Afghanistan vary from 130,000 to 160,000 the second-largest deployment after Iraq (3), which it is set to overtake in the near future. The 30,000 extra US troops bound for Afghanistan could be accompanied by up to 56,000 additional contractor personnel. PMC contractors will then account for nearly two-thirds of all the Pentagons personnel in Afghanistan, the highest ratio in any conflict in the history of the US

PMFs and PMCs

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=139 93 PMFs are businesses that provide governments
with professional services intricately linked to warfare; they represent, in other words, the corporate evolution of the age-old profession of mercenaries. Unlike the individual dogs of war of the past, however, PMFs are corporate bodies that offer a wide range of services, from tactical combat operations and strategic planning to logistical support and technical assistance.

Just in time and lean production of wars

- Downsizing the military but permanent war agenda - Possibility of war profiteering - deregulation - unemployment

What does it mean for 'development' ?

Recall how we defined development - modernization - Capability - social power