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, I’m
sure some of you will recall that moment, and said,
“These are the moral equivalent of America’s 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
6
Kashmir: What is at issue?
Self-determination and independence
Secularism versus religion as a basis for
states
Territory
Dislocation and loss of lives
Identity
7
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
9
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)
10
Locus of power
President
Undemocratic constitutions (especially since
Zia), with unprecedented concentration of
powers in the President
Military
Weakness of the political system; Perceived
threat of external aggression
Bureaucracy
History & state formation;
Elitism of the Muslim League;
Concentration of power in the head;
Cultural bias against politicians;
Religion
Perhaps the most complex locus of power
The US
The US’s own interests
- oil
- anti-communism
Regimes
Sources of legitimacy
M.A. Jinnah (1947-8)
Creator of independent
Pakistan
Ayub Khan (1958-69)
Developmentalism
Yahya Khan (1969-71)
Democratization
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (1971-77)
Democracy/populism
Benazir Bhutto & Nawaz
Sharif
‘Democratic regime’ (?)
Pervez Musharraf (1999-2008)
War on Terror
Present
Democracy (?)
12
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-Haq’s 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-Haq’s ‘Islamization’ policies had
detrimental effects for women especially
through a set of law called the Hudood
Ordinances
 A vocal and vociferous women’s
movement emerged during Zia’s rule
 Women’s movement in Pakistan
struggling to articulate a balance between
Islam and secularism
Political Economy of Defence
 Ayesha Jalal (1995) has argued that Pakistan’s
overdeveloped military has had determinative
effects on Pakistan’s 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
Pakistan…points 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 People’s 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
 Pakistan’s 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 administration’s “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
Pentagon’s 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