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The Politics of the Security–Development Nexus: a Case Study of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act in Pakistan

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The Politics of the Security–Development Nexus: a Case Study of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act in Pakistan CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Sydney eScholarship The Politics of the Security–Development Nexus: A Case Study of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act in Pakistan Hussain Nadim A thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Government and International Relations The University of Sydney March 2019 Declaration of Originality This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Hussain Nadim ii Abstract The adage that there is ‘no security without development and no development without security’ (commonly referred to as the security–development nexus) has become the dominant discourse of Western donor engagement with the developing world since the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States (US). This thesis argues that the existing literature on the nexus, as seen from a critical neocolonial and securitisation lens, is Western-centric in its parochial attention to the conceptual, policy and programming concerns of the Western donors. As a result, the literature excludes the voices of the local recipient countries on this subject, robbing them of their agency and subjecthood. By doing this, the literature is inadequate in explaining the deeper level politics of the nexus that are present on the ground in the recipient countries. Therefore, this thesis takes a decolonial approach, using a case study of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Act in Pakistan to explore the politics of the security–development nexus with regard to the issues of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘agency’. The thesis argues that the security–development nexus activates a dialectical power struggle between donor and recipient countries and between different actors within the recipient countries that use the indivisibility of security and development to advance their strategic interests over each other. For instance, the nexus has enabled the US to influence the national security policies and civil–military relationships of Pakistan, challenging its sovereignty. However, the local actors in Pakistan, notably the political and military stakeholders have not been passive bystanders; they, too, have exerted their agency to co-produce the nexus and use it to their own advantage, such as by modernising their armed forces or promoting civilian supremacy in the country. The thesis demonstrates that the security–development nexus is not only a Western donor construct but also actively constructed by recipient countries like Pakistan, which mould it to serve their own interests. Recognising this co-constitutivity allows the prevailing understanding of the security–development nexus to be simultaneously enriched and challenged. iii Acknowledgements This thesis has been made possible by the relentless support of my supervisor, Dr Sarah Phillips, who guided me throughout the research project and believed in my ability to produce an original work. I am deeply grateful to my father for giving me the gift of intellectual curiosity, my mother for always encouraging me to achieve excellence and my brothers for the good times. I would like to also thank my friends, teachers and mentor, especially Ahsan Iqbal for his encouragement to pursue doctoral studies. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge that this thesis received professional editing by Elite Editing. The editorial intervention was restricted to Standards D and E of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice. iv Table of Contents Declaration of Originality............................................................................................... ii Abstract ........................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................ vii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Importance of the Study .......................................................................................... 7 1.3 Security–Development Nexus: An Overview ......................................................... 9 1.4 The Kerry-Lugar-Berman (KLB) Act ................................................................... 10 1.5 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................... 14 1.6 Research Methodology .......................................................................................... 18 1.6.1 Research Approach ........................................................................................ 18 1.6.2 Data Collection and Analysis ......................................................................... 19 1.6.3 Reflections from the Fieldwork ..................................................................... 22 1.7 Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................... 27 Chapter 2: Decolonising the Nexus .............................................................................. 32 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 33 2.2 What is Western-centrism? ................................................................................... 35 2.3 Decolonising the Literature ................................................................................... 38 2.3.1 Knowledge/Assumptions ............................................................................... 40 2.3.2 Context ........................................................................................................... 49 2.3.3 Actors ............................................................................................................. 53 2.3.4 Language ........................................................................................................ 55 2.4 Framework for Studying the Nexus ...................................................................... 57 2.4.1 Reviewing the Local History ......................................................................... 57 2.4.2 Studying the Local Actors .............................................................................. 59 2.4.3 Language ........................................................................................................ 61 2.5 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 61 Chapter 3: Not Our War .............................................................................................. 63 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 64 3.2 Neither Friend nor Foe .......................................................................................... 65 3.3 Reconfiguring Pakistan ......................................................................................... 69 3.3.1 Geopolitical Cartography ............................................................................... 71 3.3.2 Influencing National Security Through Hearts and Minds ............................ 76 3.3.3 Agents of Imperialism .................................................................................... 80 3.4 Influence through Terms and Conditions .............................................................. 86 3.5 The Economics of the Nexus ................................................................................ 92 3.6 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 94 Chapter 4: ‘Help Me, or Else’ ...................................................................................... 96 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 97 4.2 US–Pakistan Relationship and the Fear of Isolation ............................................. 98 4.3 The Dependency Trap ......................................................................................... 105 v 4.4 You Scratch My Back, I Scratch Yours .............................................................. 112 4.5 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 120 Chapter 5: Aiding the Civil–Military Divide ............................................................ 122 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 123 5.2 Civil–Military Relations and the Cold War ........................................................ 126 5.3 Changing Friends in Pakistan.............................................................................. 132 5.4 The KLB Way ....................................................................................................
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