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Draft ISA 2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION NOTE: This paper is a draft submitted for ISA Annual Convention 2021. The paper cannot be circulated, cited, or referenced without the permission of the author. Nuclear Taboo and Gendered Politics: A Case of Pakistan in the Nuclear Decision-Making Sannia Abdullah1 Pakistan represents a puzzling case of women’s empowerment in politics and national security. On the one hand, women are the worst victims of humanity's horrors like acid attacks, gang rapes, and the Taliban's shooting of a schoolgirl (Malala Yousafzai). On the other, Pakistan is the first Muslim-majority country in modern history to elect a woman prime minister (Benazir Bhutto elected on December 02, 1988). Pakistani women regularly make headlines in Forbes' 30 under 30 lists as activists, firefighters, entrepreneurs, and Oscar winner for film-making. Despite such inspiring stories, Pakistan is ranked 151 out of 153 in the Global Gender Gap Index Report (2020). The Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports that “almost 1,000 women are murdered in Pakistan in the name of honor each year — killed on the grounds of 'unacceptable' amorous relationships, defiance of physical or cyber-gendered spaces, brazenness in dressing and language or perceived immorality.”2 This is not strange for any patriarchal and semi-tribal society like Pakistan, where social injustice begins from childhood education, choice of professions, and political appointments. Women have to make tough decisions between their careers and raising families at various stages of their lives. At present, thirty-two percent (32%) of primary-school-age girls in Pakistan are out of school compared to twenty-one percent (21%) of boys. “By ninth grade, only thirteen (13%) percent of girls are still in school.”3 Advocates of gender equality argue that women are under-represented at all political leadership levels that ultimately affect political discourses and foreign policy choices. Proponents of Feminist Foreign Policy (FPP) are making in-roads in the U.S. after serious discussions, research, and “consultations with more than 100 feminist activists in over 40 countries, which began in August 2018.”4 Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy, International 1 Sannia Abdullah is currently an affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University. She was a Stanton Postdoc fellow at CISAC, and visiting scholar at CMC, Sandia National Labs (NM). She was a faculty member at the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University (Pakistan) for six years teaching undergraduate and graduate students. She is currently writing her book manuscript and also hosts her podcast show ‘Women with Ambition.’ 2 Sahar Bandial, “The ‘Honour’ in Murder,” Dawn, September 13, 2020 at https://www.dawn.com/news/1579389; Also see “Pakistan: Events of 2019” Human Rights Watch, May 03, 2019 at https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/ country-chapters/pakistan# 3 “Pakistan: Girls Deprived of Education,” Human Rights Watch, November 12, 2018, at https://www.hrw.org/news/ 2018/11/12/pakistan-girls-deprived-education# 4 Adva Saldinger, “Advocates Propose Blueprint for US Feminist Foreign Policy,” May 22, 2020 at https:// www.devex.com/news/advocates-propose-blueprint-for-us-feminist-foreign-policy-97308 Page 1 of 20 Draft ISA 2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION Center for Research on Women, said, “We need to make sure the foreign policy apparatus looks more like us and represents the views of women in the global south.”5 Countries like Sweden, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have made considerable developments in adopting FFP approaches; however, some like France, Luxembourg, and Mexico have announced adopting the feminist foreign policy. Scholars have used the FFP approach in various academic disciplines; however, it would be novel to assess 'nuclear taboo' in patriarchal societies. Pakistan's case is critical because nuclear policy and debates remain confined to male- dominating/militaristic decision-making circles. The article analyzes the academic debate and questions if women's empowerment and gender equality would strengthen the fragile nuclear taboo’ in Pakistan? The study also challenges the commonly held perception that women are less hawkish than men and answers two major questions: First, why is Pakistan a suitable case for the debate of ‘nuclear taboo’? Second, if gender equality would alter Pakistan's strategic preferences in national security affairs? Third, if the feminist foreign policy could strengthen the fragile ‘nuclear taboo’ in a patriarchal society like Pakistan? Any democratic country cannot ignore women’s inclusion and influence at the decision-making table for three major reasons: First, demographically, women make up nearly half of the population. According to the 2017 census, women make up 48% of men, with 51%6 of the total population. Any democratic society with such demographics cannot ignore or suppress the active role of its women population. Second, Pakistan’s economic picture is very bleak with an increasing trade deficit, blooming national debt, and high inflation rate (it is 10.74% for 2020 compared to 6.74% for the year 2019). It is an agrarian economy with low exports and low urbanization rates. About 87 million people living below the poverty line,7 most Pakistani men are the breadwinners, and women are homemakers. According to World Economic Forum, “It is estimated that only 18 percent of Pakistan’s labor income goes to women (148th), one of the lowest shares among countries studied.”8 Thus, nearly half of Pakistan’s human capital is not contributing to national development due to gender inequality. Third, the intermittent takeovers of government by the martial law regimes nurtured Pakistan's nuclear program under military leaders’ wings, who are the de facto authority to manage, control, deploy, and employ nuclear weapons. “Over the years, the military as an institution considered itself responsible and trustworthy to develop and strategize nuclear policy.”9 The nuclear decision-making, policies, narratives, and debates are directly or indirectly controlled by the army-dominated nuclear secretariat - Strategic Plans Division (SPD). The nuclear discourse largely comes from a tightly 5 Ibid. 6 “Population Census 2017: Men Outnumber Women in Pakistan,” Samaa TV, August 25, 2017, at https:// www.samaa.tv/news/2017/08/population-census-2017-men-outnumber-women-pakistan/ 7 Shahbaz Rana, “In Pakistan, Millions More to Fall Below Poverty Line,” The Express Tribune, December 11, 2019 at https://tribune.com.pk/story/2115274/millions-fall-poverty-line 8 “Pakistan ranks 151 on Global Gender Gap Index: WEF Report,” The Express Tribune, December 17, 2019 at https://tribune.com.pk/story/2119793/1-pakistan-ranks-151-global-gender-gap-index-wef-report 9 Sannia Abdullah, “Nuclear Ethics: Why Pakistan Has Not Used Nuclear Weapons…Yet,” The Washington Quarterly vol. 41, no. 4 (Winter 2019), p. 163. Page 2 of 20 Draft ISA 2021 ANNUAL CONVENTION knit strategic community of serving and former military officials and few senior bureaucrats many of whom are leading think-tanks in Pakistan. Civil society and subject experts make up a small community; the majority of them reverberate the official diktat of ‘befitting response, denying Indian coercion, and reserving the nuclear First-Use option.’ The civilian representation in the National Command Authority (NCA) of Pakistan includes the prime minister, foreign minister, interior minister, finance minister, defense and defense production ministers. Since the creation of NCA (February 2000), only two women represented in the NCA: 1) Hina Rabbani Khar, as the minister of foreign affairs (February 11, 2011-March 16, 2013), 2) Zubaida Jalal Khan, as the minister of defense production (August 20, 2018-present). In 23 years of nuclear deterrence, nearly half of the population’s voice on nuclear decision-making is not present in Pakistan’s policymaking rooms. It is, therefore, important to assess the women’s perspectives on peace, anti-militarism, and evolutionary ‘nuclear taboo.’ Evolution of Anti-Nuclear Debate from Feminism Since WWII, scholars, activists, and journalists have widely debated whether women's inclusion in national security affairs would balance off the militaristic and warmongering state tendencies. Most of the scholarship combined feminist international relations, sociology, and organization theory to illustrate gender equality in the military. This debate started in response to the feminists’ movement that criticized the organizational hierarchies and bureaucratic structures designed as masculine, undemocratic, non-inclusive, and male-dominating. The women's movement argued that men “monopolized the leading positions, even in radical organizations, excluding women from positions of power and influence.”10 In her famous book Men and Women of the Corporation (1977), Prof. Rosabeth Moss Kanter shared an interesting account of women in the 1970s when corporations hired women as managers, executives, and professionals regarding power distribution. Her findings challenged the conventional narratives as 'Nobody wants a woman boss' or 'Women do not get along with other women' and found that key variables existed in society's structure. According to Rosabeth Kanter, women's role in society influenced their appointment and work performance in corporations. For instance, the designation of secretaries back then tied with women’s supportive role in society and a vast majority of women