Political Economy of Terrorism and War
description
Transcript of Political Economy of Terrorism and War
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!”
Focus on Pakistan
The Map: Territory & Community
6
Kashmir: What is at issue?
Self-determination and independenceSecularism versus religion as a basis for statesTerritoryDislocation and loss of livesIdentity
7
Some basics…
Independence on August 14, 1947East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West
Pakistan4 provinces: Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, NWFP3 territories: Azad Kashmir, Federally
Administered Tribal Areas, and Gilgit-BaltistanNational language is Urdu - but most people
speak Punjabi (60-70%)
9
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
10
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)
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
12
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 (?)
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. Before 9/11, these conflicts were
treated as distinct problems. Today, they are seen as inextricably linked”.
Schaeffer (2)
“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 (3)
Third, in economic terms, 9/11 and the wars that followed contributed
to recession and, more recently, a new housing crisis. To appreciate the
immediate and possible long-term consequences of these developments,
we will examine each of them briefly.
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”
Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/02/09/afghanistans-outsourced-war.html#ixzz1HKHVN7AI
“
PMFs and PMCs
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13993
“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 three ways of defining development
- capability
- human face
- social power
What do I have to know for the exam?
- three approaches to development
- migration
- financial crisis
- political economy of war and terrorism
Format of exams
You have to choose two out of five