Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs
(RCMA): Debatng the
Contours and Relevance of Pakistan’s Civil Military Relatons
(CMR)
Syed Ali Hadi*
Abstract
Civil Military Relatons (CMR) in Pakistan have always remained controversial. The
power equaton between the civil and military is being contested since the genesis
of Pakistan. However, the pendulum has always swung toward the military side.
Fewer journalistc writngs argued about civil military integraton (CMI) but it could
not be materialized as an academic subject. Since the last century, the Revoluton
in Military Affairs (RMA) is changing the character of war as well as emerging
threats. Similarly, the threats of 21st century have been transformed from state
or politcal actors to non-state actors of any kind. This has, in turn, rendered the
civilian side in conflict as critcal as the military side. Consequently, the concept of
Revoluton in Civil Military Affairs (RCMA) became an academic subject. The paper
will critcally apprise of and debate the contours of RCMA, its civilian and military
strands and how is it relevant in the case of Pakistan under the hybridity of threats
in 21st century.
Keywords: Civil Military Relatons, Pakistan, Revoluton in Civil Military Relatons
* Syed Ali Hadi is currently pursuing his MPhil in Strategic Studies from Natonal Defence University,
Islamabad. He is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Strategic and Contemporary Research.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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Introducton
Civil Military Relatons (CMR) has always remained in the limelight of
Pakistani politcs. However, it does not exclusively rest with Pakistan
alone. The civil and military power equaton has always been debated
and contested. Likewise, the balancing act between the two sides of the
said equaton is a dauntng task. Since its independence from Britsh rule,
Pakistan for the first tme, witnessed a smooth transiton of power from
one civilian government to another civilian government. The only factor
was that the government completed its term. From then onward, things
around the equaton of CMR are setling in. However, there are sincere
voices from within the state that vouch for civil-military integraton (CMI).
As much academic as it sounds, CMI was not actually as it was perceived. It
was a debate in order to integrate the two sides of the same coin thereby
diverging away from the old rhetoric debate of CMR. Even literature on
CMI is not sufficient enough to explain how it would be executed keeping
in mind the decades old imbalance in the equaton of CMR. With the
advent of the concepts of Revoluton in Military Affairs (RMA), came many
innovatons in military tactcs and strategy vis-à-vis technology. These
innovatons also developed and paved the way for the threats to emanate
from non-traditonal ways, may it be informaton or ideological domain.
Therefore, the concept of revoluton in military affairs (RCMA) is the focus
of this artcle where the two sides; civil and military under the hybridity of
the threats will be discussed. The literature will make a critcal appraisal of
the concept and argue its relevance for the 21st century threats Pakistan
is facing.
Civil Military Relatons
Civil-military relatons in Pakistan remained in a hostle conditon during
the past seven decades. One afer another military coup is a practcal
example of inadequate trust among civil-military leadership. Though,
Pakistan got independence in 1947 but in 2013, it was the first tme when
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Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs (RCMA): Debatng the Contours and Relevance of Pakistan’s Civil
Military Relatons (CMR)
a civil democratc regime was successfully transited to the new one. The
role of military leadership in Pakistan is known as power seeker and
the politcal leadership is deemed immature and it prioritzed personal
interests over natonal interests.
Moreover, the lack of harmony among all the insttutons of
Pakistan is another obstacle in natonal integraton and creates more
problems than paving ways for progress and prosperity. The internal and
external threats related to security issues have also deviated the civil-
military leadership from identficaton and resolutons of these threats.
Civil leadership on the one hand, has difference of opinion among them
due to diverse ideas and backgrounds but military leadership remained
focused on its own interpretaton of security dilemma. Due to diversity
in approaches toward pursing the security, socio-economic and foreign
policy issues, civil-military relatons faced lack of confidence which caused
military coups and interrupton in democratc contnuity. With the passage
of tme, owing to the contnuity of same conditons and relatons, the rif
between civil-military leaderships has grown up enough and is an existng
as reality.1
War on terror was the factor which integrated most of the regimes
of the world. However, in Pakistan there was not any natonal narratve
against terrorism tll 2014 APS Peshawar atack.2 The civil leadership
was divided into many groups as some of them were against Tehreek-
e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and all terrorist organizatons. However, some
were differentatng these organizatons as good and bad Taliban. The
APS atack changed the mind-set of most of the politcal leadership and
in a very long session of civil military conference just afer the APS atack.
Afer the successful session, it was announced by the Prime Minister
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif that Natonal Acton Plan (NAP) had been
launched to counter terrorism across the state on 24 December 2014 in an
1 Emil Lengyel, Pakistan (F. Wats, 1972) Pg 52.
2 Afab Khan et al., “Post Traumatc Stress Disorder among School Children of Army Public School
Peshawar afer Six Month of Terrorists Atack,” Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences 34, no. 3 (2018):
Pg 525-29.\\uc0\\u8221{} {\\i{}Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences} 34, no. 3 (2018
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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address to the naton on television.3
Civil Military Integraton
Nevertheless, these are all rhetoric that the controversy of CMR revolves
around. However, certain journalistc writngs did prevail on the concept
of civil military integraton (CMI) but it did not get materialised as an
academic concept, let alone a strong debate over it.
Scholarly debates and analyses are missing from literature in the
policy circles of Pakistan about civil military integraton (CMI). Although
it is an academic concept which was applied by the Chinese4 in People’s
Liberaton Army’s (PLA) strategy for 21st century threats. Whereas, in
Pakistan it was a mere concept to incorporate both sides with one another,
thereby, giving it the name of integraton. Moreover, the weak insttutons5
other than the security organizatons are considered the reason of
incompetency and fall short of integratng the two sides of the same coin.
21st Century Security Threats and Paradigms
The evolutonary development of the subject of security studies is stll
ongoing. The world is constantly changing which is affectng the security
paradigms in 21st century. The traditonal concept of security rested with
state and its armed forces. Nonetheless, it has expanded toward non-
traditonal6 threats in 21st century which are also known as the sectors
of security, as elucidated by Barry Buzan. These sectors are military,
politcal, economic, societal and environmental. Therefore, previously it
was security of the state but in contemporary tmes it is the security of
individuals living within the states. So, security is to be perceived from
3 Francisco Rojas Aravena, The Difficult Task of Peace (Springer Nature, n.d.), 355.
4 Toby Warden, “A Revolutonary Evoluton: Civil-Military Integraton in China,” Australian Insttute of
org.au/australianoutlook/a-revolutonary-evoluton-civil-military-integraton-in-china/
5 Riaz Hassan,
“Pakistan’s Civil-Military Relatons,” Yale University, October
11, 2018, accessed
November 10, 2019, htps://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/pakistans-civil-military-relatons
6 David J. Kilcullen, “New Paradigms for 21st Century Conflict,” Small Wars Journal, June 2007, accessed
November 11, 2019, htps://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/new-paradigms-for-21st-century-conflict
8
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Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs (RCMA): Debatng the Contours and Relevance of Pakistan’s Civil
Military Relatons (CMR)
different perspectves and approaches7.
Revoluton in Military Affairs
All the new methods of warfare have been powered by the role of
Informaton and Communicaton Technologies (ICTs) which has included
war-fightng concepts like network-centric warfare (NCW) and Informaton
Warfare (IW) amongst others. The revoluton in the affairs of security and
military have been given the name of Revoluton in Military Affairs (RMA)8
The ramificatons of such a revoluton do not only require to be understood
by military officers but also by strategic planners as well as academics.
The said concept of RMA has also introduced the fifh9 dimension of
informaton that aids in previous four dimensions of land, sea, air and
space. Therefore, strategic planning accounts for all the sectors of society
under the umbrella of RMA. James Adams in his book, “The Next World
War: Computers are the Weapons & Frontline is Everywhere” explains as
to how the evoluton of technology has revolutonized warfare in tandem
with extncton of many old concepts of war; siege warfare is one of them.
The recent development in the concept of RMA has been established as a
result of microchips.
Understanding whether the RMA has affected war-fightng concept is
from how the technology has affected objectves, efficiency, effectveness,
magnitude and duraton of war. Moreover, the new technologies that
are being tested and employed in the war-fightng strategies are Artficial
intelligence and autonomous systems and quantum science10. These will
transform warfare as radically as the technologies that are emerging. It
7 Astrid Orovcanec, “Security in the 21st Century: In Search of New Research Paradigms and Approaches,”
Title_SECURITY_IN_THE_21_ST_CENTURY_IN_SEARCH_OF_NEW_RESEARCH_PARADIGMS_AND_
APPROACHES
8 Sharjeel Rizwan, “Revoluton in Military Affairs (RMA),” Defence Journal, accessed November 11,
9 ibid. 8.
10 Christan Brose, “The New Revoluton in Military Affairs,” Foreign Affairs, June 2019, accessed
affairs
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
9
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will no more be a fictonal concept of movies alone.
As far as the technologies are concerned, the first revoluton came
in the 17th century. It was the rise of modern naton-state system that
brought order and organizaton over the conduct of war. The second
revoluton is called the French Revoluton11 which elucidates rise of mass
politcs and allowed the state to field natonalistc armies larger and more
disciplined than before. The third is commonly known as the industrial
revoluton in which the concept of mass producton12 emerged as a result of
mushrooming of business consortums and organizatons. It also allowed
states to maintain huge armies and logistcs to fight the conventonal
wars. The fourth revoluton occurred during the later parts of the First
World War when militaries developed the modern system of small unit
manoeuvres and combined arms to reduce enemy’s lethality and increase
survivability13. The Fifh, and final, revoluton was the adopton of nuclear
weapons. Current arguments for a new14 RMA say technological changes
to the tools of war will revolutonize how it is fought. However, historically,
only once in more than 600 years was an RMA caused by a technological
change in the tools of war alone—during the nuclear revoluton.
The revoluton in military affairs (RMA), began during America’s
involvement in the First Gulf War15. It has been accepted as a common
precedence for the advent of RMA.
Strategic theorist Colin S. Gray said,
“…in common with war,
strategy has an enduring nature but an ever shape-shifing character16.”
11 Jonah Walters, “A Guide to the French Revoluton,” Jacobin Magazine, July 14, 2015, accessed
November 12,
jacobins-terror-bonaparte/
12 History, “Industrial Revoluton,” July 1, 2019, accessed November 12, 2019, htps://www.history.
com/topics/industrial-revoluton/industrial-revoluton
13 Adam Wunische, “Nothing New: Why the 'Revoluton' in Military Affairs Is the Same as the Old One,”
The Natonal Interest, September 2, 2019, accessed November 12, 2019, htps://natonalinterest.org/
feature/nothing-new-why-revoluton-military-affairs-same-old-one-77266
14 ibid. 13.
15 Anthony H. Cordesman, “The Real Revoluton in Military Affairs,” Center for Strategic & Internatonal
military-affairs
16 ibid. 13.
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This explains that strategy is always dynamic in its character and it can be
adaptve to the evolving concepts and technologies.
The overarching concepts of such a revoluton as a result of
technological advancements also drove the thought process of strategists
and academics to develop and craf new concepts to resolve the old issues
of the last century. Such was the case where Anthony H. Cordesman
developed the concept of Revoluton in Civil Military Affairs (RCMA).
Revoluton in Civil Military Affairs
The concept of Revoluton in Civil Military Affairs (RCMA)17 was coined by
Anthony H. Cordesman who presented a working draf paper18 at the Centre
for Strategic and Internatonal Security (CSIS) in 2018. He deliberated on
the said concept from the perspectve of the United States. The lessons
can also be drawn from it for Pakistan’s civil military equaton in tandem
with understanding the novel concepts in general.
Revoluton in Military Affairs (RMA) has changed the conflicts
in the 21st century and its effects need to be looked at carefully. The
mainstream as well as social media19 is depictng on daily basis that how
natonal security threats are changing from non-state actors to individual
security. Special focus can be given to ongoing wars of Afghanistan, Syria
and Iraq. Therefore, the re-examining of the conflicts is also in flux. The
United States and its allies have paid special atenton to such changes
since the liberaton of Kuwait from the first Gulf War in 1991 followed by
the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The acute threats from extremism, terrorism
and insurgency renders the United States to redefine security which is
17 Anthony Cordesman, “The Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs,” Center for Strategic & Internatonal
civil-military-affairs
18 Anthony Ho. Cordesman, “21st Century Conflict: From “Revoluton in Military Affairs” (RMA)
to a “Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs” (RCMA),” Center for Strategic & Internatonal Studies,
February 15, 2018, accessed November 13, 2019, htps://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/
publicaton/180215_RCMA_Report_cordesman.pdf?ANPFgt3cD.iG0KCBA.hw6tsbmGiqu5SD
19 Hammaad Salik & Zaheema Iqbal, “Social Media and Natonal Security,” The Geopolitcs, September
9,
2019, accessed November
13,
2019, htps://thegeopolitcs.com/social-media-and-natonal-
security/
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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being driven by different kinds of revoluton, that is, a revoluton in civil-
military affairs. This concepts in one liner elucidates that the civilian
dimension of warfare is equally important vis-à-vis its military one. This
RCMA has its politcal and economic dimension as well owing to failing
or weakening of the states20. This asymmetric conflict between the state
and non-state actors calls for the greater role of winning the hearts and
minds of civilian populaton which has become as critcal as to win a batle
itself. The concept can be exemplified with the civilian aspect of Russian
involvement in Ukraine as well as the growing instability in Europe in the
post-Brexit politcal environment21. On the other hand, it can be measured
by the peaceful rise of China which combines the power of military and
economic manoeuvres in Asia-Pacific as well as the ongoing civil-military
conflicts in Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. All of the said actors and
regions pose a new security and threat matrix.
The aforesaid examples depict the combinaton of violent terrorism,
religious extremism and sectarian violence blended with contours of
insurgency by non-state actors. At the same tme, each of these aspects has
emerged as a result of politcal disunity, ineffectve governance structures
as well as scarce opportunites for economic and social development
which would again amplify regional threats and instability22. These linkages
at the tactcal level of conflict
needs to create security and stability at the civilian level for which the
United States and its partners need to ponder over. Therefore, a direct
link is to be established between politcal unity, effectve governance and
economic development as part and parcel of a lastng peace and stability
in any military conflict. It is also tantamount as a fact that the worst
challenges are also emanatng from the weak and divided states, where
20 ibid. 19.
21 Andreas Umland, “What Brexit Means for Ukraine,” Atlantc Council, June 27, 2016, accessed
November
14,
ukraine/
22 ibid. 19.
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least has been done for its populaton and civilian needs23. Henceforth,
all the above said debate culminates threats from both civilian as well
as military side and demands a more comprehensive engagement with
civilians on the same side of the conflict as the military. That means it also
requires innovatons in concepts.
The Limits to “Military” Aspects of RMA
The needs of modern warfare cannot be fulfilled only by a pure military
aspect of revoluton in military affairs (RMA). Same goes for the United
States and its grand strategy that relies heavily on the military aspect.
The era of the 1990s was a moment where the United States and Europe
emerged as a dominant mix of global military forces where the former
was considered as a sole super power and the later, its biggest ally in
any conflict. The same decade also paved the way for internet and social
networking platorms as a result of forces of globalizaton24. Despite
warnings and analyses from the experts that the threats would now
evolve from state actors to non-state actors; from traditonal security
to non-traditonal security, United States and its allies did not pay heed.
In the same era, however, the coaliton of US forces with European and
Arab forces, fought to liberate Kuwait in 1991. The batle to liberate
Kuwait involved advanced tactcs and technology but relied on military
operatons fought by conventonal forces in direct air-land engagements
and ended in a formal ceasefire between state actors25. This first gulf war
saw the “revoluton” in military affairs where the use of precision-guided
weapons, deep strike, radical advances in technology in tandem with
stealth operatons emphasized on the role of joint warfare and a near real-
tme decision cycle based on equal advances in secure communicatons
and digital aids.
23 ibid. 19.
24 ibid. 19.
25 John M. Goshko, “IRAQ ACCEPTS U.N. TERMS TO END GULF WAR,” The Washington Post, April 7,
iraq-accepts-un-terms-to-end-gulf-war/9800a4ea-62c1-4215-8119-f21cf4630b78/
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Similarly, from 2006 onward, the United States and its allies have
fought the conflicts which were not purely military in nature. As said
the two “long wars26” - Afghanistan and other in Iraq and Syria. Both the
conflicts were driven by failures and weaknesses of host governments
to cope with the needs of their populatons. Hence, both wars were
dominated by non-state actors using the methods of insurgency, irregular
and asymmetric warfare and both became caught in the dilemma of civil-
military challenges to which the United States is only responding militarily.
Coping with the Emergence of a Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs
The events of 9/11 had already made it clear that the emerging forces were
changing the nature of conflict. They also were caught up in the failures of
host countries’ governments to deal competently with any major aspect
of their civil needs: politcs, governance, economics, or forging natonal
unity. Like most of the countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia,
and Central Asia faced acute stress from populaton growth, while creatng
modern economies for jobs as well as to control corrupton and favouritsm
and nepotsm.
The “Arab Spring27” helped lay the groundwork for the transformaton
of Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) into what is now called as the
Islamic State (IS). The Great Recession of 2007-08 showed that “globalism28”
of labour and financial markets formed an inevitable mixture of collapse.
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine showed that “litle green men” could
implement a different kind of asymmetric warfare that will further aid into
and qualify the sources of revoluton in military affairs being applied in
modern warfare.
26 Anthony H. Cordesman, “Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Yemen,” Center for Strategic &
afghanistan-iraq-syria-libya-and-yemen
27 Alex S. Wilner, “Opportunity Costs or Costly Opportunites? The Arab Spring, Osama Bin Laden, and
AlQaeda's African Affiliates,” Perspectves on Terrorism, 5, no. 3/4 (2011): 50, accessed November 16,
28 Robert Creamer,
“How Globalizaton Set the Stage for the 2008 Economic Collapse,” Huff
globalizaton-set-the_b_156172
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China has developed its own construct of civil-military approaches
to these threats by creatng artficial islands in South China Sea and East
China Sea disputes thereby increasing its strategic influence. In additon
to that, it also created network of investments, ports, and transit routes
through Belt and Road Initatve29 (BRI) in the regions of Europe, Middle
East, South Asia, and Africa.
Speaking in terms of human cost, the UN Office for the Coordinaton
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)30 warned in early 2018 that humanitarian
support was required for 3.3 million Afghans, 2.4 million of whom had
conflict-related needs and no alternatve lifeline. Life-saving responses
related to trauma care, emergency shelter, food, nutriton, and safe water
needed to be provided to 2.8 million people, including 1.6 million severely
food insecure, 585,000 acutely malnourished children and women, and
635,000 people living in damaged housing. Syria faces more direct and
brutal threats and more than 250,000 civilians have been killed.
Dealing with the Military Aspects of the Revoluton in Civil Military
Affairs
Anthony H. Cordesman, based upon the aforesaid facts elucidates that the
United States and its allies had to deal with the emerging realites not
seen before. Same goes for any state on the geopolitcal landscape since
threats are transnatonal and global. As of yet, the United States has made
progress more on the military side than the civilian side of the equaton31.
However, the challenges remain . The threat of non-state actors was not
gauged or understood from the Algerian Civil War that took place from
1991-1998. Since then, non-state actors have become a major threat.
Military doctrines, training programs and educaton, in tandem with
29 Andrew Chatzky and James McBride, “China’s Massive Belt and Road Initatve,” Council on Foreign
massive-belt-and-road-initatve
30 United Natons Office for the Coordinaton of Humanitarian Affairs, Humanitarian Response Plan
Afghanistan 2018-21 (New York: United Natons Office for the Coordinaton of Humanitarian Affairs,
2017), 1.
31 ibid. 19.
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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their training manuals, need up-gradaton of the tactcal level of operatons
to protect civilians and providing them with relief efforts to restore the civil
way of life. The effectveness of civil-military actons requires more than a
tactcal approach in order to create a local capability to hold, recover, and
build on both the military and civil levels.
Dealing with the Civil Aspects of the Revoluton in Civil Military Affairs
The most basic determinant on the civilian side of RCMA, identfied by
Cordesman, is ideological and religious threats. On the other hand, the
military should be cognizant of the fact that with security it should become
stabile through civil governance. By using civil means, it can resolve and
eliminate internal disputes, create jobs, fight corrupton, implement
economic reform, and raise living standards - all to be done by the civilian
infrastructure. This in turn, demands from both civilian and military
professionals to educate as to what amounts to naton building32. One
key area where military and civil operatons interact is the need to fight
new kinds of ideological batles using new kinds of weapons. Ideological
warfare in secular premise has been largely replaced by warfare in the
religious primise, religious extremism, and by the ideological aspects of
ethnic, racial, tribal, and sectarian tensions and conflicts.
The ideological warfare,33 that involves the role of communicatons
technology, is a new and critcal threat to internal security not just in the
Islamic world but across the geopolitcal landscape. This type of warfare
drives violent non-state actors to commit widespread acts of terrorism
and launch violent new forms of insurgency, divide natons and religions,
and produce retaliaton of the kind. Religious extremists are fightng their
ideological batle using all of the tools of Internet as well as other forms of
media, modern communicaton, social networking, and civil society.
Therefore, it is a mater of dealing not with the symptoms but
the causes. Naton building on the civil side of a conflict will ofen be
32 ibid. 19.
33 ibid. 19.
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the foundaton of any lastng success to win at the ideological level. The
best way to prevent the ideological and extremist violence is through
effectve governance, successful development, natonal equity between
all elements of society, and an effectve rule of law. To win the ideological
batle, it is pertnent to deal with the causes of anger, alienaton, and
indifference as well. It means to convince people of that naton, and those
factons which have remained divided or misrepresented, that they would
receive fair benefits in politcs, governance, economy and rule of law.
These broader aspects of the civil dimension of warfare must also
be supported by security and counterinsurgency operatons, in limitng
civilian
casualtes and collateral damage, in protectng the populaton, and by
providing for civil recovery afer operatons take place. Where possible,
civil preventon will also be far beter than any civil-military or military
cure. Once the threat of terrorism or insurgency becomes serious,
however, the host country government and/or the forces seeking peace
and stability must deal with the key portons of the populaton that have
become violent, support violent movements or stand aside from the
conflict. No form of military victory can successfully terminate and bring
enduring stability to a conflict where the "winner" loses the populaton
or fails to win its support. Today's ideological and civil conflicts are being
fought in ways that both exploit the broader fault lines in a given state’s
civil society and on a generatonal level. A large share of those who have
become extremists and now fight this conflict on the web and in the field
are younger men and women alienated from the power structure in their
countries and their traditonal religious leadership.
Accordingly, "naton building" needs to concentrate on encouraging
wartme reform and planning for post-war recovery. It needs to focus
on broad natonal policies and plans, and serious efforts to improve
governance as well as economic policies that stmulate development and
help unite the country's factons. Military and civil aid need to be made
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
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conditonal on countries developing and actually implementng such
reform efforts. Far too ofen, plans remain unexecuted contentons.
The Need for a Civil-Military Approach to Natonal Security - Pakistan
Perspectve
With this, the debate comes to a point where the traditonal noton of
civil military relatons
(CMR) in Pakistan can be compared with the
novel concepts of revoluton in civil military affairs (RCMA). The power
equaton of civil and military has always remained tlted toward the later.
Irrespectve of the reason, this has been the case for the past several
decades in the history of Pakistan. The military side of the equaton has
always confronted the emerging threats of the last century as well as
the threats of contemporary era. Speaking in terms of last century, only
at one point, where the decisive use of military was not fruitul and it
back-fired; that was Indo-Pakistan 1971 war34 that eventually culminated
into the creaton of Bangladesh. The internal discord in tandem with
the grievances of the other part of Pakistan were not addressed, since,
there was not enough politcal, economic, and social as well as analytcal
clout of politcal elite of that tme. Moreover, the dilemma was further
compounded by the separatst elements that eventually regard their own
power projecton and prestge.
The Afghan war is also an example in this respect. The military
decisively waged proxy war against the then Soviet Union (U.S.S.R) in
Afghanistan by evoking the ideological sentments of the Pakistani people
in general and the Muslims of Islamic world in partcular. The war ended
with the demise of the Soviet Union afer the fall of the Berlin Wall in 198935.
However, those elements which were at that tme known as freedom
fighters or Afghan Mujahideen were lef on their own. This was the tme
34 Business Standard,
“1971 war: The story of India's victory, Pak's surrender, Bangladesh
com/article/current-affairs/vijay-diwas-how-india-ended-pak-s-atrocities-and-ensured-freed-
bangladesh-118121600120_1.html
35 History, “Berlin Wall,” December 15, 2009, accessed November 17, 2019, htps://www.history.com/
topics/cold-war/berlin-wall
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when the civilian side had to come in for naton building of Afghanistan as
well as to inculcate the said elements back into the society. Pakistan also
did not pay heed to such a strategic blunder and that ultmately resulted
in non-state actors which is the biggest threat in the 21st century security
paradigm36. It can also be rightly argued that at that tme there were no
such concept of RCMA.
The threats of the 21st century from non-state actors, informaton
warfare, cyberspace, strategic communicatons, competng narratves,
and low intensity conflicts37 (LIC) have increased the importance of civil
as well as military side of revoluton in strategic affairs or to be more
precisely the revoluton in military affairs. The regime security, in tandem
with the economic security in terms of China Pakistan Economic Corridor
(CPEC) which is the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initatve (BRI) is
tantamount to the sectors of security elucidated by Barry Buzan and are
covered also by Cordesman in his concept of RCMA. These aspects require
the civilian side to be educated to the extent that the threats as well as
security related dynamics must be understood by them.
The warfare methods and threats have become hybrid in nature.
Its acute example as discussed above is the hybrid war waged by Russia in
Ukraine where civilian side of the conflict was equally pivotal as was the
military side. In fact, at some points in tme, the civilian side weighs more
than its military counterpart. Same goes for Pakistan where we initally
witnessed hybrid conflict against Pakistan in 1971 and in contemporary
tmes as Water wars by India, the terrorist atacks by non-state actors,
cyber-atacks in terms of Stuxnet that was meant for Iran, but it did pass
South Asia to acquire its target. The development of war-torn areas
in northern areas of Pakistan as well as the no-go-areas of Balochistan
requires jus post bellum (justce afer war) that also entails the concept of
naton building not just to reconstruct the destructve aspects of society
36 Rizwan Asghar, “Security in the 21st century,” The News, December 12, 2015, accessed November 18
37 Dr SHIREEN M MAZARI, “Low Intensity Conflicts: The new war in South Asia,” Defence Journal, July
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Stratagem
but even during the conflict where asymmetry leads to elements like
Pashtoon Tahaffuz Movement (PTM).
It is high tme that maters relevant to the civilian side must be lef to
civilians on which the military has no influence whatsoever be the case. It
involves sof power projecton, politcal stability, economic development,
and societal cohesion. Nonetheless, the advisory opinion and concerns of
the military must be taken aboard. It is also high tme that the military
must evolve itself and equip with novel ideas which are emerging on the
geopolitcal landscape in order to fight terrorism, extremism like it was
adopted in the Natonal Acton Plan (NAP).
Conclusion
It is agreeable without a single shred of doubt that the concept of security
is changing with the change in the character of warfare in tandem with
technologies with which these wars are being waged. It is tantamount to
argue that hybridity of threats has lef no room for mere debates for old
rhetoric of civil military relatons. The concept of civil military integraton
did not take place owing to its generality and journalistc writngs. The
revoluton in strategic affairs sparked a revoluton in military affairs that
rendered us with revoluton in civil military affairs. The two sides of the coin
in the 21st century can be blended as well as balanced as a consequence of
hybrid warfare which is contnuously being waged on Pakistan. In contrast
to conventonal threats from India, in terms of water disputes and Kashmir
quagmire, the war of narratves is also very critcal in contemporary tmes.
Acute examples can be quoted from Uri atack and Pulwama crisis. Educated
elite in a comprehensive concept of naton building combined with the art
of statecraf has to blend different aspects of knowledge-base in order to
secure the civilian side in any conflict. The non-traditonal threats would
further create a security dilemma for the state of Pakistan, and for that,
the traditonal noton of security from military and civilian side would not
bear enough analysis to mitgate the threats. As an academic concept, the
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Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2019
Revoluton in Civil-Military Affairs (RCMA): Debatng the Contours and Relevance of Pakistan’s Civil
Military Relatons (CMR)
revoluton in civil military relatons can bring both the civilian and military
aspects of Pakistan on a single platorm to fight the emerging and future
threats based on naton building and use of force respectvely.
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21
