Contexts of the Strategic History
By Lameea Afrin
Dept of International Relations
Jahangirnagar University.
Introduction:
Strategic history is the history that helps us to understand concerning the full and proper meaning of the concept of strategy. It is the history of the influence of the use, and threat of use, of politically motivated force. To know the importance of understanding the contexts of strategic history, I have chosen the liberation war of Bangladesh as a modern war. In this paper, I will discuss concerning the contexts of Liberation War of Bangladesh and I will try to represent the importance of understanding the contexts of the strategic history (Liberation war of Bangladesh).
Contexts of the Strategic History:
There are various contexts of the strategic history for knowing about a strategy. Here, I will discuss seven contexts of the strategic history (Liberation war of Bangladesh).
1. Political
2. Socio-Cultural
3. Economic
4. Technological
5. Geographical
6. Geographical
7. Historical
Political Context
War and politics are interconnected. Everyone includes a completely different narrative in war. The military implements the rules/ policies that political leaders make. War and peace are outlined through politics. Moreover, it’s up to the political leaders to make a decision whether there will be a war or not. The military not only the policy implements but also they gives the protection of society. What the war is and how legitimate the war is, depends on the political context.
Political Context of Bangladesh Liberation War
We have to travel back to 1947 to know concerning the Liberation war of Bangladesh and its final outcome began after 1970’s election. In 1947, two separate states, India and Pakistan, were established on the basis of religion. The Hindus of Pakistan migrated to India and the Muslims of India migrated to Pakistan. The Pakistan was divided into 2 territories (West Pakistan and East Pakistan). East Pakistan was exploited by West Pakistan. Although 62% of the revenue was generated in East Pakistan, 75% of the National budget was spent in West Pakistan despite of being small population. East Pakistan had no representative in high government posts. In such a situation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke of making Urdu as the state language, the language movement started in 1952 demanding to make Bengali as the state language. Later, during the Pakistan-India war in 1965 and famine, the problems of inequality in East Pakistan became clearer. And Sheikh Mujibur Rahman raise a “six-point” demands that referred to as the Charter of liberation of Bengali. Yahya Khan took power from Ayub Khan in 1969. And released those arrested in the Agartala Conspiracy case (1968). Yahya Khan declared elections (1970). Within the election, Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats in East Pakistan. And in West Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won 81 of the 144 seats. Yahya khan declared the meeting of the National Assembly on 3rd March, 1971. But Zulfikar Ali Bhutto blocked it, so it was canceled on 1st March. In the wake of which the strike in East Pakistan began. When West Pakistanis conducted “Operation Searchlight” on 25 March, a fierce movement for the independence and autonomy of Bangladesh began with the declaration of independence. The East Pakistan divided into 11 sectors and launched “Guerrilla attacks” on the West Pakistanis. Later, India joined with “Mukti Bahini” on 3rd December. And finally victory was achieved on 16 December 1971.
Everyone had a different narrative of the liberation war of Bangladesh. The liberation war of Bangladesh was a way for the people of East Pakistan to survive, while for West Pakistan it was a way of domination by suppressing the East Pakistanis.
Socio-Cultural
Each country has its own social and cultural characteristics: We see, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a very important leader. On the opposite hand, hearing the name of Pakistan gives us a negative view which is considered complete opposite in the case of the people of Pakistan. This is because we live in Bangladesh and liberation war based books, movies and documentaries affect our thoughts and ideas.
Every strategy is made based on the values and beliefs of a society and when a person makes a strategy based on values and beliefs, his name is related to it. But whether one state will fight or not does not depend on the beliefs and values of the society.
West Pakistanis developed a number of strategies for their own interests based on values and beliefs of their society. On the other hand, East Pakistanis developed strategies to survive themselves based on the values and beliefs of their society. The Mujibnagar government was formed due to strategic reasons of the war and subsequently three forces were formed whose names were made by the first letter of the Captain’s name. Such as: ‘Z’ force (Major Ziaur Rahman), ‘S’ force (KM Shafiullah), ‘K’ force (Khaled Mosharraf). There were also irregular forces- Mujib Bahini and Kaderia Bahini. Although the values and beliefs of the East Pakistanis were not aggressive, when the West Pakistanis started the genocide on March 25, the East Pakistanis were forced to fight for the establishment of East Pakistan as a separate state and for their rights.
Economic
Financial assistance is very important for everything from strategy formulation to war management and to maintain post-war peace and order. In the liberation war, the East Pakistan (Bangladesh) was economically ruined. In this time Bangladesh needed economic help and many countries including India and the Soviet Union, helped Bangladesh. About one crore refugees took refuge in India. The Indian government provided training, weapons and ammunition to the troops, including shelter and food aid. India had to spend about seven thousand crore taka for these works.
Technology
What will be the strategy of a state, it depends on technology. Weapons that used by West Pakistanis in 1971:
Imported guns, Automatic weapons, mortars, Artillery trucks, tanks, airplanes and ammunition etc. By using these weapons, they conducted genocide on East Pakistanis. On the other hand, the weapons used by the freedom fighters:
Weapons of defeated soldiers, bombs, knives, bows, arrows and some firearms came from India. Technology is important which is also noticeable in Bangladesh liberation war. During the liberation war, the west Pakistani forces could not sustain the way they started the operations in the beginning because of the limitations of their technology. Technology requires funding that varies from government to government.
Military-Strategic
To know about strategic history, one needs to analyze what a strategic war was like before, during and after the war. Military-strategic context basis on the Liberation war of Bangladesh:
The time of pre-war: The meeting was canceled on 1st March, 1971 and the anger of the people of East Pakistan against West Pakistanis increased. Later on March 25, when the West Pakistanis started the genocide, three million people were killed. On 26 March, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence and the people started fighting for their rights and for the autonomy of East Pakistan. However, at the beginning of the Bangladesh liberation war, the war between West Pakistan and East Pakistan was going on.
The time of war: At this time, the war took on an international form. India, Soviet Union and non-aligned countries supported East Pakistan. On the other hand, China, USA and Muslim countries supported West Pakistan.
The time of post war: On 3rd December, India joined with the East Pakistanis to wage war jointly. On 16 December, General Abdullah Niazi signed a surrender document with 93,000 soldiers and officers at the Racecourse and the nine- month-long liberation war came to an end.
Military-Strategic dimension depends on the soldiers. In 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman strongly inspired the common people and soldiers in his speech on 7th March. However, the message of hope that was given to the people in the name of independence at that time could not be achieved even today.
Geographical
Strategies are formed based on specific locations: The West Pakistanis formulated a strategy focusing on East Pakistan. On the other hand, the people of East Pakistan, made a strategy to survive themselves.
People must live in one territory or another and there is a tendency to occupy to other lands. In the liberation war of Bangladesh, East and West Pakistan were two territories. The West Pakistanis dominated the East Pakistanis through various forms of exploitation and increased their own economic and political power. And the war began to get rid of it.
Geographical location played a very important role in the victory of East Pakistan in the war of liberation of 1971. Due to India’s position between East Pakistan and West Pakistan, it was difficult for West Pakistanis to wage war in East Pakistan. Moreover, due to its geographical location, East Pakistan had a rainy season during the war of liberation, which is very important for the victory of East Pakistan.
The destiny of a state is determined through geography. The political behavior of a territory is controlled by geography. Moreover, a state cannot be moved anywhere if it wants to.
Historical
To know about a strategy one must know when it happened, why it happened and what contemporary issues it was etc.
Every Strategy is bound by time and it is not an isolated issue, there is a chronology behind it. To know about the liberation war of Bangladesh, we must go back to 1947-1971. West Pakistan was stronger than the East Pakistan. They started genocide and raped women at that time to achieve their own interests by eradicating the people of East Pakistan. The genocide was condemned in the international arena. East Pakistan’s weapons, technology was not good. But the people of East Pakistan took advantage of the limitations of West Pakistan’s weapons on the battlefield and launched guerrilla attacks. Finally, West Pakistan surrendered on 16 December, 1971.
Importance of understanding the contexts of the Liberation war of Bangladesh
Seemingly, we see that East Pakistan has won the liberation war Bangladesh. Now, if we want to know about-
Who was the opposition party of East Pakistan? Why did the war start? When did the conflict start and when the final outcome is formed in the form of war? What kinds of discrimination was between West Pakistan and East Pakistan? What kinds of tactics and technology did the West Pakistanis use in the war? What were the demands of the people of East Pakistan and what was their strategy? Who are the strategy formulate? How tactics were implemented on the battlefield? When did the war take on an international dimension and why did any country any country support East Pakistan/West Pakistan? When did India join with the Mukti Bahini and how did it cooperate? What were the reasons for the failure of West Pakistan’s tactics/strategy? When did the West Pakistan accept defeat and where did they surrender?
In order to know about the above various issues, we need to know well about the contexts of strategic history. By knowing the different contexts, we can know why the West Pakistan strategy failed and why East Pakistan’s strategy was successful etc. That is, it is important to understand the contexts of strategic history in order to know and evaluate a strategy in detail.
Conclusion
Strategic history is shaped and driven by multiple contexts. By knowing the seven contexts discussed above, we can know about the liberation war of Bangladesh. Moreover, we can know that religion played an important role in the liberation war of Bangladesh although these are not all. Knowing the contexts, we can know that the strategy of East Pakistan was more effective than the strategy of West Pakistan which resulted in being established of the independent sovereign state (Bangladesh) in 1971.
References
1. Colin S. Gray, War, Peace and International Relations
2. 1971 Liberation War, birth of Bangladesh and Comparison with Present Day Pakistan
https://www.efsas.org
3. Hugh Russell Tinker, Bangladesh, the Pakistani Period (1947-71)
https://www.britannica.com
4. Shahid Javed Burki, Pakistan, Political Process, July 9, 2021
https://www.britannica.com
5. Salam Aazad, Contribution of India in the War of Liberation of Bangladesh
6. Zaid Kalam, Arms for freedom, The Daily Star, 29 December, 2017.
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Introduction
Global war on terrorism is an international military and political activities launched by the USA government (George W. Bush) after the 9/11 attacks. Strategy is a plan or goal that uses various tactics to achieve. It is basically the use of military power for political purposes. Different dimensions are required to form a strategy. Misapplication of any dimension is considered as weakness of a strategy. In this paper, I will discuss about the dimensions of strategy and how was the use of various dimensions in the formulation of strategy of the “Global War on Terrorism”.
Strategy
Strategy is how to effectively use the power of one state and plan to achieve one’s own advantage by destroying the advantage of others.
Strategy is the way how military power is used or distributed to achieve a goal.
Strategy is an issue that connects military power and political purposes.
The dimensions of Strategy
The strategy has a total of seventeen dimensions which are divided into three categories:
People and Politics (people, Society, Culture, Politics and Ethics and morality)
Preparation for war (Economic and logistics, military administration, intelligence
And information, technology and strategic theory and doctrine)
War Proper (Military operations, Command, Friction, Chance and Uncertainty,
Adversary and Time)
To discuss various dimensions of strategy I will focus on the Global war on terror.
People and Politics
People
People means a part of politics and politics can never survive without people. The people represent the state.
George W. Bush represented the USA by declaring war on terrorism. Iraq is represented by Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda (the Taliban, Afghanistan) is represented by Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban grew up fighting in a mountainous terrain and they were so organized that they could not be defeated in the long run. On the contrary, being a super power, the tendency to dominate the thinking of the American people can be noticed. Carrying out attacks is a historic responsibility for America and its allies.
Over time, people’s thinking and consciousness changes, which represents politics in different ways. The USA went to war with the Taliban in 2001 but they currently settlement an agreement. With the change of time, they are now focusing on other policies (climate change, covid19, China-USA relations etc.)
Society
The USA adopts an aggressive policy while the less powerful states adopt a defensive policy to protect themselves. The society of the USA is an opener society, while the society of Afghanistan and Iraq is a conservative society.
Culture
The culture of each state is different. Society teaches us how to handle any work. The culture of the USA is different from the culture of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Politics
Culture determines whether politics is good or bad. One man’s terrorist another man’s freedom fighter.
Ethics and Morality
No ethics will work in strategy making. Whatever is beneficial for the state will be done. There was no ethics behind the USA war on terror. They start it to achieve their own interests. It is said that counter terrorism is not the politics of suppressing terrorism and not the politics of establishing democracy, it is the politics of oil.
Preparation for War
A state must ensure its economic, intellectual, technological and military capabilities before engaging in war.
Economic and Logistics
In addition to providing food to the troops, security measures must be taken. A state must be economically strong to ensure these. To ensure these is the responsibility of the civilian/political leaders. No one can predict the final cost before the war starts. The state must be watchful in this regard at all times. The Iraq war was estimated to cost 2 billion a month, but three months later the estimated monthly expenditure doubled to 3.9 billion.
War Related Spending, in Billions of Current Dollars, FY2001-2020
$ Billions
OCO Appropriations
Department of Defense
1,959
State Department/ USAID
131
Estimated Interest on borrowing for DOD and State Dept. OCO Spending
925
War-related spending in the DOD Base Budget
Estimated Increases to DOD Base Budget Due to post 9/11 wars
803
“OCO for base” a new category of spending in FY2019 and FY2020
100
Medical and Disability care for post 9/11 Veterans
437
Homeland and Security Spending for Prevention and Response to terrorism
1,054
Total war appropriations and War-Related Spending through FY2020
$5,409
Estimated Future Obligations for Veterans Medical and Disability FY2020-2059
>1,000
Total War-related spending through FY2020 and obligations for Veterans
$6,409
Source: Neta C. Crawford, United States Budgetary Costs Obligations of Post-9/11 Wars through
FY2020: $6.4 Trillion.
Military Administration
George W. Bush increased military power to oust Al-Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Tower. He trained the traditional Army, recruited additional troops and formed trained military units (Special Operations Forces -SOF) to conduct war on terrorism.
Special Forces Capabilities:-
1. Special Reconnaissance and surveillance in hostile environments.
2. Foreign internal defense.
3. Offensive Action
4. Counter-terrorism operations
5. Counter-insurgency
6. Sabotage and demolition
Information and Intelligence
The formation of a strategy depends on adequate amount of information, technology, politics, geography and munitions. Deception plays an important role in formulating strategy.
Al-Qaeda has been blamed for 9/11 attacks and USA identified that Osama bin Laden stayed in Afghanistan, and based on that information, the USA has developed a strategy to attack there.
USA government knew that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that was wrong information. The USA has been the victim of misinformation in the war on terror, the price of which is still to be paid.
Based on technology that the USA had, various strategies were adopted, including assassination of Osama bin Laden. Black Hawk down helicopters were used to kill Osama bin Laden and drones were used to provide round-the-clock information to the white house. Also existing technologies in the USA- Electrical-optics, Integrated circuits, embedded computing, Infrared sensor and motion detector.
Facebook, twitter, Snapchat and YouTube have been shown to be the means of communication between terrorists and Osama bin Laden and inspired his followers through videotapes. This information influences the formulation of USA strategy.
Strategic Theory and doctrine
The main goal of the invasion of Afghanistan was to overthrow the Taliban, establish a democratic government. To corner the Taliban and the invasion of Afghanistan, make and implement of various tactics that are part of strategic doctrine.
The USA planned to overthrow the Taliban through a framework and took preparation for war by increasing economic power, military power and creating public opinion that is strategic theory.
Technology
Technology is very important for war and it depends on the society how the user will use the technology. The USA developed technology after 9/11 attacks. They had high quality drones explosives etc. They use offensive technology as the superpower of the world.
War Proper
Military Operations
Military Operations are usually about threatening the enemy and implementing strategies and tactics.
Al-Qaeda was blamed and Taliban leader was told to hand over Osama bin Laden to the USA and close all Al-Qaeda training camps. Otherwise, USA will attack them. The Taliban leader did not agree, asking the USA to provide evidence that Bin Laden was behind the attack, which the USA denied.
“Operation Enduring freedom” began on October 7, 2001. NATO participated in this war. Initially the USA didn’t send troops in Afghanistan. They threw bombs from above and conducted with them by helping anti-Taliban groups. Shortly afterwards, USA and NATO troops entered in Afghanistan, and the Taliban were forced to relinquish power in mid-November. The USA learned of bin Laden’s location in December and sent local militant groups of Afghanistan. They could not catch Osama bin Laden.
The Taliban officially collapsed in December and Taliban leaders including Mullah Omar, fled the capital Kabul and took refuge in various mountain caves. From there, Taliban continued to fight against the USA and NATO.
The USA has not been able to seize absolute power in Afghanistan. Many areas were still under Taliban control.
In 2009, Barak Obama adopted a new plan. He sent 17,000 troops and talked of making a deal with Pakistan. He planned to assassinate him and succeeded. However, the USA has not yet achieved its goal. More anarchy is created instead of peace.
Command
Command is very important for conducting war. No strategy can be perfect without a balance between military leaders and political leaders.
USA president George W. Bush has served as political leader in the war on terror. Later Barak Obama came as a political leader. Osama bin Laden assassination shows a balance between political leaders and military leaders.
Bureaucratic organizations/political leaders legitimize the war and supply the cost of the war. On the other hand, the military leaders conduct operations. It is never possible to conduct to war without two compatibilities.
Political leaders decide whether or not to go to war, and ceasefires are also conducted by political leaders. Compromise agreement with Taliban executed by political leaders (Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Joe Biden) and calls for troop withdrawal by 2021.
However, there is little consensus between military and political leaders on strategies for the war on terror. Although allegations made by political leaders against Saddam Hussein in the Iraq war, the overall situation on the battlefield was the troops disintegrated and showed sympathy for Saddam.
Friction, Chance and Uncertainty
There was uncertainty about how long the Iraq war would last. Plans to open a large front in the North were thwarted when the Turkish government refused to allow mechanical and armored USA military units to pass through Turkey.
Adversary
There must be animosity between the two sides to conduct the war. After 9/11 attacks, hostile relations developed between the United States and Afghanistan. Allegations of weapons of mass destruction have caused animosity between Iraq and the United States. War broke out in various states in the name of establishing democracy.
Time
That war must be fought when it needs to be fought because if it is done later, it will not have any legitimacy. Conducting war before and after the time will not be effective that means states have to war at the right time.
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the United States identified Al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization, launched an offensive against Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban. But later, a long stay in Afghanistan in the name of establishing democracy was unprofitable for the United States. The invasion of Iraq on false charges in the name of terrorism has not yielded any effective results in the long run.
Evolution
Dimensions have not been properly applied in the strategies developed by United States for the war on terror. And that’s why the war on terror has had short-term success, but not long-term success.
Conclusion
In order to conduct a war, one must form a strategy and use different dimensions to create a strategy. To know whether a strategy is good or bad, one needs to know about the application of dimensions as well as contexts and themes. The united States attacks on various states in the name of the war on terror are not succeeding in the long-run, but are creating more chaos (the rising of IS).
References
1. Griff Witte, London bureau chief, Washington Post, Afghanistan War (2001-2014)
2. Colin S. Gray, Modern Strategy, pp.16-47
3. The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, Iraq war (2003-2011), 26 May, 2021
4. Scan Maroney, Afghan Taliban evolves with technology, 6 October, 2011
5. T.X. Hammes, Terror and Technology from Dynamic to Drones, 4 September, 2020
6. John Keller, Mil and Aero Blog, the Growing Role of Technology in Global War on Terrorism,
8 December, 2015
7. U.S. Chamber Says Space Technology Critical to Terrorism War, 7 November, 2001
8. Mark Thompson, Adding up the Cost of Our Never-Ending Wars, 7 December, 2019
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