National Security

National security refers to how states protect themselves. “It is an unfortunate fact that we can only secure peace by preparing for war” – U.S President. Armed conflicts are destructive, thus states may face security threats, and so they prepare themselves for defense.

            Since the international system is anarchic – no international government – so states are encouraged to rely on self help for protection. So National Security (the country’s psychological freedom from fear of foreign aggression) is utmost important in making of foreign policy.

1.       Compellence:

            Compellence is a method of “Coercive Diplomacy” involving the use of force or threat to use the force against adversary to stop from doing an unwanted action or unacceptable behavior or to implement a desired behavior.  However the core instruments to achieve the desired compellence are the use of “Military Force” and implementation of “Social and Economic Sanctions”    

            Few years back the Iran was advised by United States to stop working on Nuclear Warheads, since it is global threat. However, Iran didn’t bother this warning and kept working on its nuclear project. Resultantly United States implemented Economic Sanctions to compel Iran to stop working on Warheads. Since the economy of Iran was relied mostly on oil export, Iran faced tremendous economic turmoil because of so sanctions. Nonetheless, lately Iran and United States signed a treaty for Nuclear Program and the sanctions have been lifted.

            In 2014 the Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine. United States discouraged and implemented sanctions of Russia in order to compel her to set Ukraine free. The Russia was left with no other option but to set Ukraine free because the Russian economy is based on its exports mostly to United Stated.

            In 1990, another historical example was set when, Iraq attacked Kuwait based on territorial conflict. The attack was condemned by the world and United Nations asked Iraq to step back and set Kuwait free. Since Iraq had then 4^th largest military force so she refused to comply with the so request. Eventually the United States sent her Military force to fight with Iraqi and they succeeded to set Kuwait free.    

            In 1995, in a copyright infringement case U.S imposed 1 billion tariffs on selected imports of Chinese goods to discourage copyright infringement. Since U.S noticed that about 29 factories were stealing the digital copyright material of U.S and more than 70 million disks had been produced and sold in the chine. However when Chinese didn’t bother this tariff, the United States imposed Sanction on major imports to dissuade the country from stealing copyright material.

2.      Deterrence:

            Whereas the compellence is an aggressive and offensive strategy to force the adversary to change its behavior according to desired behavior with the help of force (military), the deterrence dissuade the adversary from undertaking future action against one’s homeland (central/direct deterrence) or against an ally (Extended deterrence) thought the threat of retaliation.

            The tension between India and Pakistan never reduced. Since 1947 both the countries have fought two major wars in 1965 and 1971 but still the problem is there. However, now Pakistan has become a nuclear power and India is well aware of this fact that now the war would not be traditional but nuclear and mutual destruction is assured. So Nuclear Power of Pakistan is playing the role of deterrence for India since it is dissuading her from attacking Pakistan. Pakistan has a great threat of India since she has always been aggressive and offensive towards Pakistan. So to maintain the balance of power or in the view of Neorealist “balance of terror”, Pakistan has to make its defense stronger and enhance its nuclear capabilities.

Deterrence by Denial:

Nuclear Utilization and Target Selection (NUTS) is a strategy contrary to “MAD” which claims that it is possible to wage and win limited nuclear war. One country can target and destroy adversary’s nuclear warheads (arsenal) and could achieve the victory without the fear of Mutual Assured Destruction. Howsoever, finding the exact location of adversary’s warhead isn’t that easy as it seems and doing so could lead to drastic results.

            The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) also known as Star war was a program first initiated on March 1983 by U.S President Ronald Reagan. The intention of this program was to develop sophisticated Anti-Ballistic Missile System (ABM) in order to prevent missile attack from other countries, especially from Soviet Union during the cold war arena. However due to budgetary constraints the project was then set-aside. 

Deterrence by Punishment:

            MAD Mutual Assured Destruction stresses that nuclear weapons have revolutionized deterrence and defense, because nuclear weapon can cause catastrophic destruction. As such, countries with nuclear weapon are discouraged from actually using them because they know the mutual destruction would be assured, but they will continue to build their arsenal in order to deter other from attacking.

            Second Strike Capability is a nuclear strategy that describes a country’s capability to respond to a nuclear attack with powerful nuclear retaliation against attacker. In current scenario the India is quite sure about the second-strike capability of Pakistan hence would never try to attack because of so fear.    

Cuba Missile Cracking:

            In 1962 the Soviet Union was secretly building missile base in Cube, which was discovered by U.S Spy plane. U.S president Kennedy announced at meeting with ExCom that this must be dismantled and the same was communicated to Soviet Union. When Soviet Union didn’t bother and continued to build the missile base, President Kennedy made a direct call (hotlink) to Soviet Union President and warned that the U.S will attack Cuba if the Missile Base will not be dismantled. However, after cross-negotiation of weeks Soviet Union agreed to dismantle their missile base in exchange of dismantling U.S missile base in Turkey.     

Methods of Launching Nuclear Warheads:

(i)                Inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICMB)

(ii)             Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM)

(iii)           Bomber (Combat Aircraft)

(iv)           Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles (MIRV).  

Characteristics of Deterrence:

            The key elements of deterrence strategy based on preemptive threats are:

(i)                Capability.

(ii)             Credibility.

(iii)           Communication.

Advocates of deterrence argue that “the deterrence will be succeeded if the cost of attack will be communicated to challenger, assessed by challenger and believed by the challenger” – Richard J. Harknett, Strategic Theorist. 

Balance of Terror:

            The balance of terror is the fear of nuclear retaliation. If one attacks on another nuclear power, the other would strike back and this fear of nuclear retaliation is deterrence. In case of Indo-Pak tension the fear of nuclear retaliation has been prevented the war. Before nuclear bombs India has attacked on Pakistan a couple of times. Pakistan has been showing tremendous patience since Indian boarder commission have been taking place in terminally, violating the sovereignty of Pakistan under Article 2(4) of United Nations charter.

            Russia and America fought cold war from 1945 to 1991 and finally ended the war. Some scholar attributes the peaceful end of cold war to deterrence.

 “The Noble Peace Prize should have gone to the Atomic Bomb” – Schlesinger. 

Neorealist philosophers also support this issue of balance of terror. One country can only maintain peace by balancing the level of terror i.e. by enhancing military and nuclear power.

3.      Preemption:

            It is a preemptive war/attack that refers to a military action which is designed to fore-settle or to prevent future aggression. It is anticipatory self-defense; it involves getting your retaliation first. It is an alternative strategy to strategies such as “Deterrence, containment and constructive engagement” as a mean of dealing with potential aggression. It gained the importance after the American preemptive attack on Iran in 2003.

Bush Doctrine: America could launch first strikes to defend itself from terrorist and countries that support terrorists in order to prevent possible attacks before they occur.

            There are many scholars who supported this doctrine who are known as “Neo-Conservatives or Neo-Cons”. Thought this doctrine goes against the Article 2(4) of UN charter that dissuade any country from attacking another. However, Neo-Cons support this doctrine by Article 51 of UN Charter that explains the conditions of self defense.

National Security Strategy of United States:

(I)                Preemptive

(II)             Defense

"Traditional concept of deterrence will not work against terrorist enemies whose cowered tactics are wanton destruction and targeting of innocent, whose so-called soldiers seek martyrdom in death and whose most potent protection is statelessness."

4.      Defense:  

Defense is strategy that warns hostile powers might attack; agreements are unlikely resistant, deterrence may not be credible so one should prepare itself for defense because even diplomacy only works when backed by arms. If an aggressor thinks that he will win, the chances of war are higher. Defense power is the ability to repel an attack and to limit the destruction from aggression.

Defense first serves as deterrence, if deterrence fails then defense preserves the state, blunting the attacks and then counter attacks to overthrow the attacker. In 1965 India attacked Pakistan and was unaware of defense capabilities of Pakistan. However Pakistan retaliated so hard and overthrown the India from homeland.